Questionnaire Results

Film Questionnaire Results

70% of respondents watched films weekly whilst the remaining 30% watched them on a monthly basis. None of the respondents said that they watched films less than once a month. This high percentage of regular film watching is not surprising considering that the respondents were almost all media students.

The most popular way of viewing films was online with 40% of people saying that was the how they mostly watched their films. Only 10% said they mostly watched films at the cinema. This is a trend not specific to my target group as sales of cinema tickets have gone down, perhaps in part due to emerging technologies and online streaming sites. This has resulted in Hollywood investing more in “tent pole” movies as they bring in the largest audiences and do very well overseas. For example the Transformers franchise is very popular in China.

The most popular online streaming services were BBC iPlayer and ITV player. Netflix and 4 OD were not far behind. The least popular was Amazon Prime with only one person using this service to view films. With services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime now making their own exclusive content this may change in the future as people begin to subscribe for fear of missing out. However it is perhaps not surprising that the subscription free services are most popular as they are free and available to everyone with Internet access.

 The most popular genre is Comedy with 40% responding it was their favourite and no-one responding that it was their least favourite. Horror was not far behind with 30% saying it was their favourite but also 30% saying it was their least favourite, making horror the most divisive genre. Nobody placed Romance or Sci-Fi as his or her favourite genre.

The two strongest influences to see a film were advertising and genre. The least influential was friends and family. Advertising a film can cost vast amounts with Hollywood blockbusters using up to half of their budgets on marketing.

Two people chose Johnny Depp as their favourite actor. Many of the other actors chosen were well known for their action roles such as Tom Cruise, Will Smith and Denzel Washington. The average age of favourite male actors was 53. One was in his thirties, two in their forties, three in their fifties, one in their sixties and one in their seventies.

The most popular actress was Emma Watson with 3 respondents picking her. The average age of the actresses was 38.  Two of the most popular actresses were in their twenties, one in her thirties and 5 in their forties.

This large age gap between popular male and female stars may be down to a gender bias in Hollywood films or it may be down to the individuals chosen to take part in the survey. Regardless it is clear that men were popular from their thirties to their seventies whereas no woman over forty was chosen by the respondents.

The most popular films were Hollywood with 7 out of 10 people saying they watched them most. 5 people chose British films as their most watched whereas nobody chose Bollywood, China/Hong Kong or any other country. This shows how important language and culture is to the respondents. Britain makes far less films then Bollywood and China/Hong Kong but is still popular. This is not very surprising as all of the respondents were British or living in Britain.