Audiences and Institution: The Woman In Black

1. Who do you think the Primary and Secondary target audience is for The Woman In Black? Why?
I think that the primary audience are people who like horror films, especially of the supernatural kind. Due to the certificate (12) i would say that students are the main target as elder people may think that because it is only a 12 then it wont be that scary or gory. As for the secondary audience, i would say that people who are fans of Daniel Radcliffe would feel intrigued to see him in another role to Harry Potter and maybe also the parents of the children who are going to see it (e.g. the main theme running throughout is the relationship between parents and children). It could also have targeted the people who enjoyed the book and wanted to see it adapted to a film version.
2. How was The Woman In Black marketed? 
There was a huge marketing campaign for The Woman In Black, including many interviews with Daniel Radcliffe who promoted the film and drew in Harry Potter fans because he wanted to get across to the audience that he could act in other roles and wanted to be taken more seriously as an actor. The film company also hired the space on the homepage of YouTube to get their film advertised, knowing that over a billion people a day use the site.

There were teaser trailers and posters released and adverts put in newspapers and magazines. An article on 'Screen daily' said how 'The Woman In Black promoted on new London tube WiFi service' and that 'Momentum Pictures is promoting the home entertainment release of The Woman In Black with a special initiative in conjunction with Virgin Media and MyMovies. On June 16 and 17, Virgin Media’s new WiFi service on the London Underground will host a previously unseen piece of video content for the hit horror film.'

There was then a main trailer and main poster released along with posts on a Facebook page and Twitter. Newspaper advertising was used a lot too, with double page spreads and front page stories.
3. Do you think the marketing materials for the film were appropriate? Why?
I think the marketing materials were right due to who their primary audience was. This was younger teens and by using Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, the advertisers managed to reach these younger teens and most of them would have used these social media sites. Their secondary audience were elder people, maybe the parents, and they targeted these people by putting adverts in newspapers (as elder people are more likely to read the newspaper than younger people, this is a good way of reaching them.

4. What kind of release did the film have?
This film had a big release and was released on February 3rd, 2012(USA) and was shown in 2,856 cinemas and 40 countries worldwide. With takings of $20,874,072 (USA) on the opening weekend, the film grossed $54,322,273 (USA) by 27th April 2012.


5. How much did The Woman In Black cost to make and what was the industry impact of The Woman In Black?
The Woman In Black had an original estimated budget of around £10.5 million, and had worldwide makings of £80,027,859, this became the highest grossing British Horror film in 20 years. Due to the large marketing campaign, there was a huge hype around this film, making it a definite 'must watch'.


6. Why do you think the film was so successful?

I think it had a large part to do with the way Daniel Radcliffe spent so much time on marketing the film in order to get away from his Harry Potter childhood and in doing so, advertised the film to a much wider audience than it may have reached if he hadn't. Nevertheless, the overall marketing made it so successful as the teaser poster and trailer seemed to do its job by creating a hype that surrounded the film and spread by word of mouth. I think that the certificate put some people off but on the subject of word of mouth, i think people would have gone to see it via recommendation of friends/family. Generally, i think it is a very well thought out film and is filmed well and provides good, scary entertainment and a new take on a ghost story.