The Woman in Black, Directed by James Watkins (2012)

1. Who do you think the primary and secondary target audience is for The Woman in Black?
The primary audience for 'The Woman in Black' is predominantly males and females who are under 25, this can mainly be because of the 12A certificate the film was given, meaning that the distributors intended for the target audience to be quite young. The primary target audience is also those who enjoy and are interested in horror and paranormal movies, and enjoy the thrill of watching a horror. The secondary target audience is those who are over 25, mainly the middle class. This is because the film was initially a book that would've had a more mature/middle class audience, the film is also shown in the theater as a play which would also attract a more middle class audience. The use of the play and book means that this middle class audience may potentially be interested in going to see the film. The distributors do not initially set out to target these people for their film, but they are influenced by other factors.

2.  How was The Woman in Black marketed? 
The Woman in Black was marketed in a way that would maximise its sales and make it a movie that nobody could wait for. There were many different ways that the move was marketed, through the use of social media, teaser campaigns, promotion, the main campaigns and merchandise. The distributors started the campaign with a teaser trailer and poster to create a buzz for the film and to keep people thinking about it until the main trailer was released. It was at this point when Daniel Radcliffe got really invested, and spent a huge amount of time drawing in fans of Harry Potter, to show them that he was capable of more 'mature' acting. After the teaser campaign came the release of the main campaign, this included posters, trailers, radio adverts, social media campaigns as well as large newspaper and magazine coverage. All of these types of advertising allowed the film to appeal to all different audiences, from younger adults, teens and those who were slightly older. The younger audiences would see more of the social media campaigns whereas the older audiences are more likely to see the magazine and newspaper adverts/spreads. A huge way that the film was marketed was through Daniel Radcliffe, due to him being the main character he featured in all of the posters and trailers, using him as the main focus on the posters for the film drew in the 'Harry Potter' audience because they were keen to see him on the big screen again. Daniel Radcliffe also featured on many TV shows to promote the film and encourage people to come and see it upon it's release, he invested large amounts of time into doing Q&As and promotional videos. Due to think 'The Woman in Black' was one of the only horror films to receive this much promotion and publicity.

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

'The Woman in Black' was given a 12A certificate before the films release in February 2012, something that many people complained about after the film was released and had been watched. 'The Woman in Black' received 134 complaints with people concerned with the 'tone' and 'theme' of the horror movie. The BBFC considered the film to be on the boarder between a 12A and a 15, however the BBFC defended their certification of the film stating that the vast majority agreed with the 12A rating.
I think that the way the film was marketed was extremely clever, the use of teasers before the main campaign allowed people to become interested and invested in the film. the different way in which is was marketed allowed it to have a larger reach and a larger audience. They were also very smart using Daniel Radcliffe as such a main focus on all of their marketing materials as it helped them to draw in a larger audience and create even more of a hype for the film. However, I think that the fact that it was targeted to such a young audience as well as the older audience was not suitable as I believe that many parts of the film were not appropriate for the younger audience it was aimed towards. 

4. What kind of release did the film have? 
In the United States the film was released on the 5th of February 2012, on it's opening weekend alone it was shown on 2,885 screens and made approx $20,874,000. A week later, on the 12th February 2012 the film was released in the United Kingdom and was shown across 412 screens, and made approx £3,153,000.  When 'The Woman in Black' was at its widest released it was shown in 2,856 theaters and 'The Woman in Black' was shown across 46 different countries in total. This can be considered quite a large release especially for a horror film, especially considering other horror films that year made significantly less during their opening weekends. Sinister only made $18,000,000 later on that year. The film was also given quite a large premiere at the London Royal Festival Hall where thousands of people turned up to see the cast on the red carpet. By June 2012 the film had made approx $127,730,000 making it the highest-grossing British horror film in 20 years!

5. How much did The Woman in Black cost to make? (Production budget) AND what was the industry impact of The Woman in Black?
The production budget of 'The Woman in Black' was estimated at around $17,000,000, meaning that the film made a $2,000,000 profit in the US opening weekend alone. The fact that it earned over $20 million in the US on opening weekend, made it the biggest US opening for a hammer film in all of Hammer history. it also charted 2nd on the box office, only earning approx $1 million less than the movie at No. 1. This caused other distributors and filmmakers to inspire from this films marketing techniques and saw another rise in paranormal movies, using very similar techniques to promote and market their films.

6. Why do you think the film was successful? 
The main reason that 'The Woman in Black' was so successful was due to the casting of Daniel Radcliffe. The casting of Daniel Radcliffe attracted a much larger audience towards the film, everybody who enjoyed him in Harry Potter was interested in seeing what else he was capable of and the 'fangirls' were desperate to see him in another film. This is why he was plastered over every campaign they released, he was the main feature on the teaser poster, main poster and he took part in many different promotion techniques to boost the film. The amount of promotion he done for the film and the fact that he was such a main focus in the posters and trailers also meant that people were extremely aware that he would be playing an important role, therefore encouraging them to see the film. The 12A certificate the film was given could also be a reason that it was so successful because it meant that those who had seen Daniel Radcliffe in Harry Potter were able to go and see this film too and it was open to a wider audience.

The amount of marketing and promotion the film is the final reason why it was so successful. Daniel Radcliffe had a very important role when it came to promoting the film by taking part in Q&As, competitions aswell as TV talk shows. Not only this but the distributors promoted the film on so many levels; social media, billboards, TV and radio, that by the time of it's release so many people had seen/heard about the film so were intrigued to go and see it.