Niche and Mainstream audiences (film reviews)

 Mainstream Film:

The Notebook (2004 USA film):

Who doesn't love a good romantic movie? This classic definitely touched more hearts than many would care to admit, but being based in a novel by Nicholas Sparks, we expected no less. Here are some technical details about the film:

• It was produced by New Line Cinema, Gran Via Productions and Avery Pix
• It was produced in the United States
• It was directed by Nick Cassavetes
• It was released on the 25th of June, 2004 in the USA 
• The runtime is 124 minutes
• It belongs to the romance and drama genre ❤

Budget and box office revenue:

It cost about $29M to make, which, based on statistics between 2009 and 2015, is below the average budget for a rom-com (which is actually about 36 million dollars). However, it made about $116M at the box-office, which is 4 times its original budget!!👀

Iconic faces in the film:

Of course, the extraordinary and well-known cast gave the film star power and managed to bring this story to the big screen flawlessly.

Film synopsis and target audience:

The Notebook is a film based on the famous novel by Nicholas Sparks. One could argue it is your typical boy-meets-girl, they fall in love but get separated and reunite years later; however, Sparks puts a spin in the narrative. We are introduced to the elder version of both protagonists, (although we don't find out it is them until the end), the lady has Alzheimer's and Noah, the gentleman, tells her a story about two young lovers. The majority of the screen time is dedicated to watching Noah and Allie's relationship unfold, but it is this touch of nostalgia and sentimentality that really gets to the audience and makes this more original than other films of the same genre.

The target audience is teenagers to the elderly; it has been rated 12+ by the BBFC due to minimal sexual content. This is a wide age targe demographic, typical of mainstream films. In terms of gender, it stereotypically appeals to women due to their superior affinity to the romance genre. 

The target audience will belong to the middle and upper-class as traditionally they are more interested in this genre, rather than others such as social realism which appeal more to the working classes (stereotypically speaking). The spending power does not have to be huge, just enough to be able to afford to go to the cinema. 

On the other hand, in terms of ethnicity, it is a classic western society film, so it will appeal to people that belong to western culture, no matter their race, although due to the lack of representation of other ethnicities, one could argue this film tends to target white people. Speaking broadly in terms of the lifestyle, the target audience will enjoy spending an evening at the cinema watching a fairly predictable rom-com with their friends; they will hence have a fairly comfortable lifestyle and enthusiastic approach to life.

Niche Film:

Dangal (2016 Indian film):

This is a perfect example of how much locations affects whether a film is considered niche or mainstream. If we were referring to Bollywood, I would say that this was a mainstream film, however, in western society, the biography of Mahavir Singh Poghat leans more towards the niche. Here are some details about it:

• It was produced by Aamir Khan Productions with The Walt Disney Company India (which relates to why it would be considered mainstream in India)
• It was produced in India
• It was directed by Nitesh Tiwari
• It was released the 21st of December, 2016 (the release near Christmas is also a clue to this being more mainstream in its natal country)
• Its runtime is 161 minutes⌚
• It belongs to the sports drama and biography genre (which makes it more niche)🏆🏀

Budget and Box office revenue:

The film cost $9.5M to make, which is quite less compared to the $29M budget of The Notebook. However, it made approximately an astounding $300M at box-office worldwide 👀!! This leads us to the question of the impact of Bollywood and its huge audience due to the large population of the areas to which it distributes the most, such as India, Eastern Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia, just to name a few. It is crazy how Bollywood has grown and impacted a huge portion of the Eastern world and yet we think of Hollywood as the only big filmmaker in the world. However, don't let yourself be fooled, this industry generates a great deal of revenue with films such as Dangal, even though they are still a niche in western society.

Iconic cast?


The main actors are all Indian, some are more well-known than others but probably the most iconic one is Aamir Khan, an actor as well as a film director, a filmmaker and a television talk-show host. This would have provided star power when the film was released in India.

Film synopsis and target audience:


The film is an autobiography for Mahavir Singh Poghat, who trained his daughters in wrestling. The youngest, Geeta Poghat, was India's first female wrestler to win at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, where she won the gold medal whilst her sister won silver. This film explores the difficult path for an Indian female athlete to reach an international competition in the face of adversity due to economic limitations and cultural factors.

 
The target audience in India would have been much larger than in the western world. In terms of age and gender, the film successfully appeals to both genders by featuring themes such as sport as well as empowered female protagonists; however, the biographical style of the film might narrow the age demographic to young adults (20+) until the elderly, making it narrower than The Notebook.

However, the biggest limiting factors are going to be ethnicity and social class. This film directly appeals to people from the Hindu culture, or with Eastern culture and backgrounds from countries such as India. Even though we live in a multicultural society in the western world, this will narrow quite a bit the target audience for the film. Furthermore, the film targets quite specifically the working class by reflecting the struggles of a working-class family in India with economic limitations and what difficulties this will pose. However, the appeal is not limited and people from the lower middle class and middle class might find this interesting to watch as well. The spending power is not a limiting factor either as long as the families can afford to go to the cinema.

Finally, in terms of lifestyle, people who are interested in learning about different cultures will also be a part of the target audience of this film. Niche audiences in search of authenticity in the midst of all the mainstream fictional chaos will appreciate the social realism in this film as well.