My main focus on target audience age range is between 12 to 24

years of age. I chose this age range as it seemed appropriate for

my project. My film Classmates is a romantic comedy and like
most romantic comedies, the target audience is focused on
women. Romantic comedies have a large target audience as
different films attract different ages. The age range as a whole
can be from 11 to 40 years old. The teenage romcom genre which
my film falls under, is targeted at younger women from the ages
of around 12-25. This is because the main actors/actresses of the
films are of similar ages to the audience. Films such as ‘Mean
Girls’ and ‘A Cinderella Story’ both have characters of similar
stereotypes, classes and genes of that of the target audience.
Most teenage romcom’s are made in America and so the target
audience would be American or British youths.

Teen romcom

Older romcom audience

Other romcom’s such as ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ and ‘Pretty
Woman’ are targeted at a much older, mature audience of about
30 to 45. These films have more of a mature whit and romance
compared with the teenage romantic comedies. They also include
more complex storylines and appeal more to the middle aged
woman. The actors included in the matured romcom’s are also
similar ages to that of the audience or slightly younger. I have
given my film Classmates a film rating of 12 (www.bbfc.co.uk).
The film does not contain inappropriate material, but may contain
mild scenes of bad language, crude remarks etc. The 12 rating
allows my audience to identify that there will be no content which
is inappropriately rude or offensive.

Gender is an important aspect of a film target audience. Romantic

comedies are specifically aimed at women, as they are funny and
comic in a playful way, but also have a romantic aspect to them
which may include complicated relationships etc, which is
something the audience can relate to. The main characters of
Romcoms’s are very stereotypical. A lot of romantic comedies
have a similar storyline. Where the pretty, but unnoticeable girl
falls in love with the dark, handsome, popular ‘jock’ male
character that is going out with the ‘queen bee’ character that is
pretty, blonde, rich and popular stereotype who thinks she is
loved by everyone but because she is so nasty, everyone really
dislikes her. The ‘queen bee’ stereotype naturally hates the quite
pretty girl because she loves her man, and the main, quite girl
changes her looks and is noticed by the main male character and
they fall in love. Leaving the mean, popular girl hurt and
confused.

‘Queen Bee’ stereotype ‘ Jock’ character’

Romcoms’s that involve these story lines include teenage

romcom films such as Mean Girls, A Cinderella Story, It’s a Boy
Girl Thing, 13 going on 30 and 17 again.
Romantic comedies have quite a large range for social classes.
They target the higher end of the middle class to towards the
middle working class. This is the same for teen romcom’s as it is
the more mature romcom’s. The genre of romcom can target both
middle class and a lower classes by includes characters that
reflect every class as a whole. Stereotypes are used in films to
reflect certain people and personalities, with this the teen
audience who watches the film, can relate to the different
characters independently to what social class they may be from.
The predominate race in my film are Caucasian characters. The
actors all live in a similar area to one another, and so have a
similar culture. The audience for this film would attract a
Caucasian audience as people who can relate to the characters.
This however does not rule out other ethnicities. The target
audience is not simply narrowed down to a Caucasian audience,
just because the majority of the characters are Caucasian. Films
that in the past that have featured mainly just Caucasian
characters, has not affected a mixed race audience or box office
ratings. My featured film should not have a narrow cultured
audience either.
Most romantic comedies are aimed mainly at a female,
heterosexual audience. My film does explore different aspects of
peoples sexuality, therefore allows for a homosexual audience as
well as a heterosexual one. The main focus and idea of my film is
that the male character falls in love with the main female
character, who is a lesbian. Seeing as the general focus for the
comedic and romantic aspects of the film will be the male trying
to win over the rich, attractive, popular girl when she is actually in
love with a woman would attract a heterosexual and homosexual
audience. By targeting a homosexual audience as well as a
heterosexual audience goes against the usual romantic comedy
conventions of a male and female falling in love with each other.
My storyline complicates the plot of a usual romcom and after the
two minute opening to the film, leaves the audience wanting to
watch the rest of the film.
According to boxofficemojo.com the romantic comedies that have
been the most successful in the box office rank in order:

1. My Big Fat Greek Wedding released on the 19th April 2002

had a gross of $241,438,208
2. What Women Want released on the 15th December 2000 had a gross of
$182,811,707
 3. Hitch released on the 11th February 2005 had a gross of $179,495,555
These are very good box office takings and compared with a successful and well
known adventure film such as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire which had a total
box office taking of $290,013,036. This is close to the gross of the highest rated
romantic comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding which shows that the film must have
been very popular if it can be compared to large success such as one of the Harry
Potter franchises.
The romantic comedy genre had not been a popular genre until the release of Pretty
Woman in 1990, which began a trend of romcom’s which audiences became
interested in. Various examples such as My Best Friends Wedding (1997), Forces
of Nature (1999) and Love Actually (2003) have shown that the romantic comedy
remains a popular genre, and it is likely to remain so even if it is unlikely to regain
the central role it had in the 1930s.

Romantic Comedy
Questionnaire
1. Do you feel that you are targeted
as a teenage audience for some
romantic comedies? If so why?

2. Who would you watch a teen romcom

with?
3. What types of stereotypical
characters would you expect to see in a
romantic comedy?

4. Who do you think the targeted

audience is for a romantic comedy?

5. From what social backgrounds are the

typical romantic comedy characters
from?

6. What sexual orientations do you

usually acknowledge in teen romantic
comedies?