Exit Polls

Alex DaviesExit Polls

What are Exit Polls? Exit Polls are used to find out facts about the audience which will help the distributors of the film attract consumers. The reason the distributors use exit polls are to find out the gender and age of the audience watching the film. As well, what media distribution attracted them to go watch the film, and what aspects of the films premise interested them. For example, for youth-orientated films, distributors would usually create a Facebook, Twitter and Instagram account for the film, so it gets media buzz and get more notice among young people, therefore encouraging them to watch it in the cinema. An example could be the DUFF. In addition, they want to see what information/advertising convinced them to go see the film and what made them want to attend. For example, The Fault in our Stars had many reasons for its attendance, such as it being a #1 New York bestseller, it containing famous teen actors, the synopsis revolving around an important social issue and it being a heartfelt romantic film. Why do the distributors use them?

Examples of Exit Polls (Age and Gender)

We can see from these two exit polls that they have different ratios of men to women. The Invisible Woman has a higher female percentage because it revolves around a romance writers affair, which would seem to appeal to a female audience. Whereas, Catfish seems to be quite equal when it comes to the men to women ratio, this is due to the fact that Catfish is a psychological thriller about romantic relationships online being scams, therefore it has a gender-neutral synopsis. In addition, the film The Invisible Woman has a high majority percent of people over 35, since the genre of period films are mostly aimed and appeal to an older audience. On the other hand, Catfish has a higher percentage for people under 35, since the synopsis revolves around technology and fake relationships online.

Examples of Exit Polls (Sources of Information)We can see from these two exit polls that they have quite similar sources of information. For example, both Blue is the Warmest Colour and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo have as

their highest sources of information, newspaper and magazine reviews and word of mouth. From this information, I know that this is probably the most effective way for people to go see the film, therefore for my film opening I will be making a newspaper advertisement. Despite this, other sources which were popular among Blue is the Warmest Colour were online articles, trailer before a film and underground posters, the films underground posters were likely to be popular due to the controversial subject matter of the film. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoos other popular sources, such as online adverts and posters.

Examples of Exit Polls (Baits to Audience)We can see from these two exit polls there are some similarities regarding the baits to audience. For example, the cast was not important in attracting the audience, since for Populaire, the least picked option was that it stars Deborah Francois and for Africa United, the least picked option was the cast. From this I

can learn that the cast was not the key aspects of both films. For the film Populaire both the French-aspects and the 1950s era, were some of the main baits and hooks of the audiences interest. Whereas, for Africa United the story was the major main factor which appealed to the audience. Overall, both these films have different selling points when it comes to baits for the audience.