Audiences and Institutions

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

The primary target audience for a media product is the main audience to which the product caters for. For The Woman In Black, I believe that the primary target audience are horror fans. I feel is shown in the use of colours, facial expressions, fonts, music and the general overall composition of all the forms of advertising used in this marketing

campaign. The secondary target audience refers to the audience that may be drawn to a media product for an alternative reason to that of the main one. For this film, I believe that the secondary target audience are Harry Potter fans due to the focus and significance that the advertising campaign pay to Daniel Radcliffe. This audience have potentially grown up with the Harry Potter series and Daniel, and therefore are more likely to be open to seeing more films starring him.

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 had an extremely large marketing campaign due to it being a high budget film of around 17 million dollars. Horror is a largely popular genre in this day and age and has been for a long time, and I feel as though this allowed The Woman in Black to use such a large marketing campaign, due to a massive potential audience. Daniel Radcliffe himself helped out by being involved in interviews and uploading video messages, specifically aimed at spreading the awareness of the film and what it's about. Due to the large budget the marketing team had to play around with, advertising for the film was literally everywhere including billboards, bus stops, newspapers, social media sites and even republished versions of the original novel that The Woman in Black was based on.

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

The marketing campaign for this film branches over a massive age range, from a younger audience using such websites as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, while also reaching out to a more mature audience using newspapers. I feel as though this film is aimed at a mass audience and that the marketing campaign reinforces this aim by making sure everyone would know about its release.

What kind of release did the film have? (Big/small? How many cinemas showed the film on its release?)

The film was released around the globe, being initially released in 39 countries. The large release of this film reflects the massive advertising campaign and the ambition that the producers had for this feature film. The composition of the marketing campaign allowed the film to have such a large release without the fear of not turning a profit.

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).

The Woman in Black had a production budget of 35 million dollars, although this figure also takes into account the marketing campaign. The film made over 20 million dollars in

the opening weekend alone and, up to this day, went on to accumulate almost 130 million dollars. The film managed to almost triple their initial budget, making nearly 95 million dollars, showing that the film had an extremely large impact on the world. This film had the 12th highest lifetime gross for horror films with a period theme, meaning it definitely is a film that will be remembered in the horror genre for quite some time.

Why do you think the film was so successful? (You must come up with at least two reasons).

The actual film was a film adaptation of a successful, well-known novel of the same name. I had read the novel and saw the play for The Woman in Black prior to its film release and, as may be the same with many others, always thought that the story needs to be put onto the big screen. I would say that my initial reason for the film being so successful is that it uses a plot that has proven to be successful and suspenseful already, and it manages to pick up fans of the original novel. Then there's the massively large marketing campaign to capture in new audiences that may not know of the original novel, but may be taken in by the suspenseful trailers and eye-catching posters. The use of Daniel Radcliffe also played a large part into the success, attracting audiences who may not even be big fans of the horror genre, but rather fans of the actor instead. I would even say that the use of this actor made me want to go and watch the film more due to having grown up with the Harry Potter franchise myself. So my second reason as to why I think this film was so successful was because it not only targeted fans of the original novel (which was my first reason), but had a marketing campaign insanely large enough to attract a whole new audience.