Who do you think the primary and secondary target audience is for The Woman in Black? Why?
A primary target audience for The Woman in Black could be the adolescent male, as discussed in the 'Men, Women and Chainsaws'. The writer, Carol J. Clover, says that 4 out of five men rented this one horror movie, and "it's renters of both sexes were under the age of 25". This could be linked to the Woman in Black audience, as the film itself is rated a 12 from the BBFC and the trailers suggested the film was scary for that kind of audience.
A secondary audience could be from the Harry Potter franchise, with Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) advertised the film through videos and talk shows, trying to reel in a secondary audience to watch the film he was in. This was a great tactic because Daniel Radcliffe is known worldwide for the role he played in H.P and all the publication he gets helps advertise the film more. Another secondary audience can be people, maybe middle-aged, who are highly cultured (going to theaters and watching plays etc.). The reason for this is because the Woman in Black is also a book, and there was also a theatrical adaptation to the book. Also, there was also another Woman in Black film (1989) prior to the new release. The book of 'The Woman in Black' was also re-released with the film cover on the front of it, with Daniel Radcliffe, which helped the older existing audiences of the book be interested in seeing the film.
How was The Woman in Black marketed? (Think about genre(s), subgenre(s), media platforms, target audience, promotions, size of campaign, etc.).
The Woman in Black was marketed as a horror film, featuring ghosts and paranormal activities. The film was released in cinemas in major countries including the UK, Canada, USA and Australia. The film was then released on DVD and Blu-Ray, and was also put up for sale on iTunes as a downloadable film. Amazon also stocked the film in physical form, and entertainment shops like HMV stocked the film, also having promotional posters for the DVD releases. For the target audience, it was very large, having a wide range of people being targeted, (as stated above) like the Harry Potter fans, middle-class theatre goers and horror fans alike. The campaign for the film costed the production around half of the overall budget, which suggests the campaign for marketing the film costed around $7,000,000.
Do you think the marketing materials for the film were appropriate? Why?
Most of the advertising was appropriate. There were well placed adverts and different backgrounds for websites, and Daniel Radcliffe advertising through social media and on national television. The trailers on the other hand, I felt were a little too inappropriate as the trailers built up too much suspense and causes most people to jump. As an example, a Harry Potter fan hears about the film and watches the trailer, though they don't like horror, the trailer could easily put the person off watching the film at all.
What kind of release did the film have? (Big/small? How many cinemas showed the film on its release?)
The film release was very large, especially for a horror film. Horror films average around 1,200 as a good release, but The Woman in Black (2012) [see below] had over 3,000 screens in the opening weekend. This was due to the large advertising campaign and Daniel Radcliffes appearances in the media to publicise the film.
How much did The Woman in Black cost to make? (Production budget) AND what was the industry impact of The Woman in Black? (Think box office and trends).
According to IMDb, The Woman in Black costed around $17m to make, but in the films first weekend, the Box Office broke $20 million, and reached around $25 million for the entire weekend of both the UK and USA. Here is the chart from the IMDb website.
The film made an overall box office of $127,730,736, according to the Wikipedia article.
Why do you think the film was so successful? (You must come up with at least two reasons).
Daniel Radcliffe- He is a worldwide known actor for his famous role as 'Harry Potter', but Daniel advertised his new film to existing Potter fans by showing on TV and Talk Shows, but also releasing videos on YouTube and social media platforms for younger audiences who also recognize Radcliffe.
The Advertising Campaign- The campaign was huge! The film had taken over some websites for a couple days, including The Sun, YouTube and newspapers. With so many media platforms, the advert was hard to miss, which lead to everyone wanting to see it because of how the film was 'hyped' and constantly talked about.
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