How do audiences influence institutional decisions?

The companies producing and distributing a movie will often make decisions to make the product appeal to the audience. This may be the way the film is promoted, an example of this could be if the film is targeted to an age less than about 40 years old it could be heavily advertised and promoted online. Distributors and marketers could do this because lots of teens, people in their 20’s and 30’s tend to use the internet a lot more than people older than this. James Bond is not necessarily a movie with the target audience of teenagers so apart from some adverts and trailers online, there was not a massive online marketing campaign for ‘Spectre’.

Another institutional decision that could be influenced by the audience could be the cast that is in the movie. If a movie is in a certain genre, or is targeted at a certain audience, the actors cast (main or supporting roles), could be chosen to generate interest from the audience that are interested in the genre/ actor. An example of bad casting in the eyes of the audience in the past would be Timothy Dalton in the James Bond movies. Audiences reacted to his portrayal of Bond very badly saying that his adaptation was too violent and gritty so the institution decided it would be best to find another actor to play Bond. Timothy Dalton’s movies over all time are the worst and 3rd least successful Bond movies according to the Box Office takings.

Films can be shown at festivals for the film company to be able to determine whether it is wise to make it available at the cinema. If the audience reacts badly to the film, often the film will not be shown at cinemas.

Casino Royal set such high expectations for the following movie in the Bond franchise audiences were very excited for Quantum of Solace. The movie didn’t hit high expectations, receiving poor reviews although; Quantum did make more money at the box office with a worldwide total taking of $586,090,727 and Casino Royal earning a little less. Despite this, after the poor reviews and reactions from fans the director was changed out for the next movie.