Thriler Audiences: Who are the consumers?

It is important to look into just who the audiences of thrillers are and which of these we want to target our thriller opening towards. We researched some statistics for films released in the UK in 2009 and looked into gender demographics for different types of thrillers.

Gender demographics
Sci-fi, crime and action films are geared more towards males, whilst for females it is romance, period and suspense films. Horror and comedy films tend to be more in the middle and widespread.

UK Cinema-going in 2009
• In total, 501 films were released, 31 of which fell under the suspense or thriller category...
• Action, comedy, and animation films accounted for 52% of the total box office gross. So why are these genres so popular? Well as mentioned earlier, comedy films appeal to a wide audience of both males and females. Similarly, animation films are generally suitable for all ages and so are family favourites, whilst action films are big summer blockbusters again and again.
• In comparison, suspense/thriller films contributed a mere 4%, which I thought was quite a surprise. I think that maybe thrillers just don't appeal to as wide a market as other films. For example, in the 'fantasy' genre there were only four films released in 2009; however, they contributed 5.4% of total box office gross, more than that of suspense/thriller films which had 31 films. Could the films' certificates be what's affecting the popularity of thrillers?
 

Thriller certificates

To the right are ten varied examples of thrillers I have chosen somewhat randomly, along with their certificate.  We can see that the majority of these examples have a rating of 15, with a couple of 12 and 18 ratings each. I kind of expected more 12 ratings, but it's obvious that thrillers generally have a more mature audience than say animation or even comedy films. With this in mind it is no surprise then that thrillers don't gross as much, so I guess under 18's form a larger portion of movie-goers than I originally thought. (That or thrillers just suck... only kidding!)