Sunday 15 January 2012

How Does Audience Equal Profit?

In the following essay I will address the question, "What is a profitable source of media in South East Asia Context?", analyzing the Asian film industry based upon demographics, distribution systems and other criteria.

The mass media audience of South East Asia is a wide demographic, with many ages and religions involved. This means that drawing a singular conclusion about the people is difficult, to say the least. What we are able to confirm is the strong work ethic, familial ties and a respect of elders. This, tied with strong traditions means that when we tie this to the film industry, there is little in the means of a revolution of creativity. Films are produced with a specific format in mind, with little deviation that’s commonly seen in Western countries. Of course, there are always exceptions to this; however, in this case we will suppose that South East Asian films are produced with a formula for profitability in mind.


However, this does not answer our question of profitability. In order to do so, we must look back at the people of South East Asia on a micro-level. For one, their traditions imply a strong history of myths, fables and scary stories, and looking at demographics, we can learn that the majority of South East Asians are aged between 30 to 60 years old; an aging demographic. This means that a more serious, myth-based film would entice more viewers into the cinemas.

That, combined with the low-cost budgeting of horror films means that, even though a production company may spend less on a Horror film, the demand is high and profitability is assured. This is why the film industry, though riddled with action and drama movies, finds the genre of Horror to be one of the most successful.

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