Last week’s sales of pre-ordered tickets for Star Wars: The Force Awakens is now in the record books, both in the US and the UK. But who exactly were the ones to buy those tickets in such droves? Marketing data firm Movio Media has run the numbers, and learned who were so susceptible to Disney’s remarkably effective marketing scheme.
According to Variety:
Movio found that 70% of ticker-buyers were males between 18 and 49 years of age, with an average age of 34. They consist of regular movie-goers, who patronize theaters once a month in groups (buying an average of 2.3 tickets per transaction).’
Releasing the trailer during Monday Night Football probably also helped with this demographic, as they are the ones who would have been tuned into the game anyway.
Not that Disney is promoting the movie only towards men. The even handed marketing in gender has actually been pretty remarkable, considering that some of Disney’s other properties (ahem, Marvel, ahem) are becoming notorious for marketing schemes that not only are clearly pushed towards men, but sometimes actively cut out female characters and replace them with male ones. The Guardian says that’s because though the average ticket goer to succumb to the force this past Monday night might have been male, the data on Star Wars in general speaks to a more diverse audience. Though in the case of this fall’s releases:
onsumer tracking company Piedmont Media Research indicated last month that The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 is more eagerly anticipated by filmgoers than Abrams’ film, in part due to the space epic scoring lower in polls of women than the young adult dystopian film.
Also, The Hunger Games is the last film in that quadrilogy, while The Force Awakens is the opening salvo in Disney’s revival of the franchise. I’m sure as Star Wars goes along, and we become more attached to characters like Rey, excitement for this series will equal out.
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