Audience Figure Research (Joe French)

Crime genre:

The top 5 most popular films in the crime genre on IMDB are:

• The Shaw shank Redemption 
• The Godfather 
• The Dark Knight 
• The Godfather Part 2 
• Pulp Fiction 

Although The Shawshank redemption is voted the best film ever on IMDB, it didn't gross that much on opening weekend. On the opening weekend in the USA it only grossed $727,000 whereas in the UK it grossed $1,732,000. It only had a $25,000,000 budget which is a major loss for a film with a such a high budget. It also was only shown in 33 screens in the USA but then was released to a wider audience of 944 cinemas. It was also produced by an independent company which can hint at the type of audience the film was directed at. The company was not owned by any of the big six which can tell us the type of audience may be a niche audience.

The Godfather was released on 15 March 1972 and on opening weekend in the USA it grossed $302,393 and overall grossed $133,698,921. On the 26th of March it was released on more than 300 screens and ended up grossing $5,264,402 on that weekend. This film was produced by Paramount which means it would reach a wider audience in comparison to a smaller and more independent company who wouldn't reach such a wider audience. The fact that the film was produced by a larger company could be one of the reasons it was and is so popular. Although, in the crime genre, gangster films are often quite popular and they were much more popular at the time of its release compared to present day.

The Dark Knight is a little different, Batman is a very widely popular character and comic book which may be one of the reasons its such a popular film, its also a sequel to Batman Begins which means that the fans of the film were already excited for the film as well which helps make it more popular. On opening weekend in the USA, it was released to over 4,000 screens and grossed $158,411,483 and in the UK it was released to 502 screens and grossed £11,191,824 on opening weekend. It was released in the USA on 20th July 2008 and was released in the UK on 27th July 2008. It also had a budget of $158,000,000 which could also be its reason for such popularity because they could make all the scenes more realistic and add more intense crime scenes in it.

This will help in our opening because it shows how films in our genre became popular and what we need to do in order for our film to look just as good and be more like these films.