Genre Analysis (Action) - BFI Statistical Yearbook

BFI Statistical Yearbook – Genre Information

In order to amass quantitative data on the Action genre, we have referred to the BFI’s 2016 Statistical Yearbook as it is far beyond the scope of any survey that we could ever hope to conduct. In the BFI’s own words, ‘The Statistical Yearbook presents in one place all the available statistics on UK film and the UK film industry.’

Analysis

As is clear from the survey, the Action genre (our genre) was one of the most successful genres in 2016: 

• The Action genre grossed more money than any other genre (£393.9 million), which amounts to 30.3% of all money grossed at the box office.

• It was the fourth most common genre of film to be made in 2016, amounting to 9.5% of all releases.

• SPECTRE was the top performing Action film of 2016.

• Five of the ten highest grossing ‘12A’ classified films were Actions.

Significance

Action films are undoubtedly very popular with the British public; there is clearly a lot of demand for them. However, we need to bear in mind that the majority of the most successful Action films of 2016 were a lot more ‘mainstream’ than the film we intend to produce. SPECTRE was the most successful Action of 2016; however we will not be able to make a film of the same budget and production value as this, so we will have to really consider how we are going to cater for our target audience. 

The fact that the most successful Action of 2016 was given a ‘12A’ certificate, and that five of the top ten ‘12A’ classified films were Actions, is potentially useful information; it serves to support our provisional decision to target our film at people aged 12-24 years old. 

The Registrar General's Social Scale

The Registrar General’s Social Scale is the way the British Government defines the population through their occupation:

A benefit of the Registrar General’s Social Scale is that it can help companies to target audiences. However, the scale has been criticised for being both crude and rigid.

Significance

Out of all the films that feature in this portion of the survey, the production we have in mind has most in common with Avengers: Age of Ultron, which was the most popular film amongst members of the audience from the C1 category. With this in mind, broadly speaking, we believe our film would be targeted at Bs and C1s.