Over the course of these articles, we’ve seen how each genre has its own unique set of characteristics: for dramas, quality is king; family films rely on positive messages and careful tailoring for their target audience; horror films need good marketing to succeed. That’s easily done for a studio film, of course, but even for independent films, having someone well-known on the poster can help. Let’s start with gender. Slapstick comedies rely on performers who use exaggerated actions to get a laugh from … 15 to 24 year-olds make up almost half of the cinema audience for R-rated movies. Comedies make great date movies, of course. The other basic demographic category is age. So what does correlate with profitability? One of the oldest genres in film—and derived from the classical comedy in theatre—some of the earliest silent movies were comedies, as slapstick comedy often relies on visual depictions, without requiring so… What’s hilarious in one country might be considered decidedly unfunny in other parts of the world. By focusing on comedies, we can see that the budget of a comedy is not a strong indicator of likely profitability. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). This is not a perfect fit as UK cinemas don’t use MPAA ratings but we felt this was the best way of explaining our findings to our international audience who are unlikely to be familiar with the UK’s certification system. To understand how to make a comedy successful, we first looked at who watches them. To analyse this, we sub-divided the audience data by MPAA certificate to see how audiences differ between types of comedy. Note the slight bump for G and PG-rated movies in the 35 to 44-year-old bracket – that’s because many are parents and their cinema choices are not entirely up to them! In the demographics section, we have used UK audience data with MPAA ratings. In a previous study for the American Film Market, we looked at correlations between different genres and their estimated level of profitability. What do these charts tell us? This subgenre typically features satirical views... RomCom. Comedies, however, have a much stronger correlation between star power and success. This type of comedy... Screwball Comedy. Required fields are marked *. Humour means a specific trait of a character, e.g., avarice, pride etc. Your email address will not be published. Partly, this is because parents take their kids to the movies, but there are also plenty of teenagers going to such films, as well as older film-goers. Audience reviews. We used data from UK cinema audience surveys by Pearl and Deanfrom the past twenty years to compare comedy films to those of other genres. The greater the role models, the higher the audience love. Slapstick. As you move up the age spectrum, the age split regresses to similar levels seen among G, PG and PG-13 rated movies. The answer is mostly locally-produced comedies. That’s not to say that quality isn’t important (it is!) Today, I’m sharing my most recent collaboration with Bruce Nash for the American Film Market. Of course, it’s also true that well-known comedians are, well, funny… which certainly doesn’t do any harm when it comes to making a comedy successful. Stephen Follows 0 Comment October 1, 2018.

By contrast, all of the comedy feature films we studied with an IMDb score of 8 or higher earned enough to be profitable (assuming industry standard deals and fees!). Characteristics of Comedy Films Slapstick. We used data from UK cinema audience surveys by Pearl and Dean from the past twenty years to compare comedy films to those of other genres. This time, we investigated the common factors behind successful comedies. For example, if you walk into a cinema showing a G-rated comedy, you will find about as many people aged 35-44 as 7-11 year-olds, and only slightly fewer people between 15 and 24, or over 45. For comedies, about 31% of a film’s success is determined by its cast. First, that family-friendly comedy works across the age spectrum. The other basic demographic category is age. By using Common Sense Media ratings (to measure the content of movies) and IMDb user scores (to measure audience enjoyment) we can determine links between what’s in a movie and how much people enjoy it. A comedy film is a category of film in which the main emphasis is on humor. Their stakes are usually personal and violence is almost always done for laughs and not serious consequences. Second, PG-13 and R-rated comedies appeal especially to 15-24 year-olds, with a relatively high number of young women in the crowd. For example, below is the share of box office generated domestically for US-produced films with budgets under $10 million made since 2000. It also seems that comedies aren’t dependent on having a particular budget to succeed, which potentially makes life easier for the independent film-maker. Of all genres, comedy has the highest correlation between levels of positive role models and audience enjoyment. Comedy Characteristics and Tropes  Comedies usually feature pratfalls, wordplay, uncomfortable situations, and sometimes lean the opposite way of realism. Let’s zoom in a little more to see if this applies to all comedies. In the domestic vs international box office chart we’ve excluded genres for which we could find less than 20 movies in this budget range, which includes action and adventure. Slapstick’s origins are firmly rooted in the silent movies of the early 20th century. We estimate that fewer than a third of comedies with an IMDb score of under 6 out of 10 reached break even. In simple terms, only 5% of the success of a drama is down to who’s in it—the quality of the script, direction, and many other factors are critically important. At 54%, comedy had the second-highest percentage of women in their audiences, when compared all major genres, behind only romance (which stood at 59%). Here is a nice compilation of various examples: They reach audiences across the age spectrum, and all sub-genres can work, from light romantic comedies to gross-out teen fare, family films to decidedly adult content. The correlation is much stronger for comedies, at 0.31.

Let’s start with gender. Dramas and documentaries are a little behind, along with thrillers, all of which get about 60% of their box office from the domestic market. The mid-1930s saw the advent of screwball comedies. With stand-up comedy having something of a golden era, that might not be as hard as it sounds. The charts below show the Pearson correlation coefficient, where zero means no correlation and one is a complete positive correlation. This was achieved by using Pearl and Dean data for each movie surveyed and then cross-referencing it with each movie’s MPAA certificate.

All genres at this budget level earn most of their box office in North America, but comedies are the most dependent on their local market: about two-thirds of the box office for US-made comedies comes from North America. So we know who goes to comedies, but what do they watch?

Horror, on the other hand, travels very well, with an almost even split between domestic and international. What helps with a comedy is a recognizable star. As you may expect, no-one under 15 goes to see R-rated movies (well, not officially). It’s worth bearing in mind that comedies don’t generally travel well. You may recall that the relationship between star power and the success of dramatic features had an R² of 0.05, meaning virtually no relationship at all (a perfect correlation would have a value of 1). To understand how to make a comedy successful, we first looked at who watches them. The ancients believed that human body was made of four elements i.e., air, fire, water and earth. Your email address will not be published. To analyse this, we sub-divided the audien… It seems that positive messages are appreciated in comedies rated G, PG and PG-13, but not R-rated movies. but people are drawn to comedies with well-known actors more than with dramas. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement and most often work by exaggerating characteristics for humorous effect. That said, the lowest budget films appear to have the lowest levels of success, with just 35% of comedies budgeted under $1 million likely to turn a profit after all income and costs, compared to 52% of those budgeted over $125 million. So the demographics suggest that films should be targeted either at very general audiences, with a G, PG, or PG-13 rating; or at teens and young adults with a higher rating (probably R). In both cases, appealing to women and men is key. Language barriers can be particularly high for some forms of comedy, too.