Film Audiences

The film industry is interested in looking at the tastes and opinions of actual audiences through studies, such as surveys, focus groups, and interviews because the film industry is a money making enterprise, it remains successful only by producing films that make a profit over and above their (increasingly sizable) budget and marketing costs. The industry needs to bring in as many viewers as possible and therefore must keep close tabs on what types of stories will appeal to the greatest number of viewers at any given moment. The industry cannot afford to bank on hypothetical concepts of the film viewer but must seek out real audiences, both through research and through marketing in order to ensure that financial investments pay off. However, audiences shift over time in accordance with cultural tastes and trends - consumer tastes are always changing.

Thrillers
Statistics show that the most popular age bracket for thrillers is 16-24 which would be appropriate as they usually involve complicated plots which may not be understandable or appealing to a younger audience as they'll find it harder to work out what is going on and issues being addressed in the film they may not have had much experience in so it'll seem alien to them. This also why I think that the age rating for majority of thrillers is 15 or above.
The thriller genre has many sub-genres and this can dictate their target audience for example 'Black Swan' would attract more women because its dance aspect but the Bourne movies will be more appealing to men as most action thrillers are. To be able to enjoy a thriller you have to be intrigued the mystery and enjoy suspense and the element of surprise and enjoy trying to figure out the plot along with the characters.

The Silence of The Lambs

As further research I will look at the film The Silence of the Lambs and the audiences they targeted and attracted also how audiences responded to the film. This film was rated 18, so by this you can tell the audience they wanted to attract was an older one as it may have a complex storyline or issues that wouldn't be appropriate for younger viewers. This film received great critical especially, Jodie Fostor and Anthony Hopkins performance in the film and also it was one of the highest grossing films of 1991. The fact that it was one of the highest grossing films shows that people liked the film otherwise they wouldn't have paid to go and see it, although there are other factors when it comes to how much a movie makes this is also an important one.