Audiences and Institutions: The Woman in Black (2012)

 Who do you think the primary and secondary target audiences is for The Woman in Black? Why?

The primary audience for this film is teenagers or mainly people aged below 25. Horror films tend to be targeted towards this audience and their marketing campaign aided this. They chose to show adds on popular websites used heavily by under 25s like Youtube, Twitter and Facebook. It was also advertised through major national newspapers and radio stations. The secondary audience for The Woman in Black would be Harry Potter fans due to Daniel Radcliffe playing the lead character. He was the face of all of the posters and adverts used in every country as he was a familiar face and recognizable by everyone, even if you haven't seen Happy Potter. Not only was he on the adverts but he really pushed the marketing through the use of interviews, online competitions for fans to enter, and merchandising. 

Do you think the films marketing materials for the film were appropriate?

I think that the films marketing was great, especially the style on the posters used. The posters stood out to me more than anything else as it's not your conventional horror film poster. The main difference is that this film uses alot more colour with the heavy use of blues. Whereas, compared to most horror film posters they use block a lot more than any other colours. This is unusual, however, it does suit the age certificate of the film as its not selling itself as the scariest film as the low age rating allowed for a larger audience. This trade off of lower age rating but arguably larger audience has benefited the film in the long run.  

What kind of release did the film have?

The film had a worldwide release, being shown in over 40 countries and was in theaters for 91 days (13 weekends) and its widest released in a country was 2856 theaters and that was in North America. 

How much did The Woman in Black cost to make? AND what was the industry impact of it?

It had a budget of $17mil.

Why do you think the film was so successful?

Personally, I think it was because it was a rather scary film and it had a rather low age rating of 12. This really helped the film open to a wider audience which allowed for a even higher turnover.