Major Studios Used Children to Test-Market Violent Films New York Times- Septemb

Question

Major Studios Used Children to Test-Market Violent Films

New York Times- September 27, 2000.

Although R-rated movies cannot be viewed by anyone under the age of 17 unless accompanied by a parent, movie studios survey children as young as 9 to gauge their reaction to R-rated movies. The interest in this age group is due to the fact that many under-17 year olds actually view these movies. The Motion Picture Association of America has indicated that while the 12 to 17 age group is only 10% of the population, they make up 17% of the movie audience. Another reason for the interest in youngsters is the tie-in with toys that can aim for children as young as 4 years. Merchandise marketed by Universal for their movie "Mummy" is aimed at the 4 to 14 age group.

Before movies appear on the screen, studios run preliminary tests. People are recruited out of movie lines or malls to participate in the preliminary screening in return for free movie tickets. The results of these tests can affect advertising, promotions and future sequels. People who saw the original movie are often surveyed during the planning phase of sequels to determine "...who are the most intense fans of the movie by age, gender, ethnicity, et cetera, and what drives their zeal." This information helps to guide the sequel.

Recently Columbia Tristar

interviewed 800 people who had seen the original thriller "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer". Five hundred of these moviegoers were in the 12 to 24 age group, with 100 in the 9 to 11 group. An additional 200 African-Americans and Latinos were included in the sample, 150 between 12 and 24 years and 50 in the 9 to 11 group. Questions about the original movie pertained to their favorite character, other liked characters, most memorable scene, favorite scene and scariest scene.

Before releasing "Disturbing Behavior", MGM/United Artists

previewed 30-second commercials among 438 people age 12 to 20. They found that viewers ranked the standout scene as a woman bashing her head into a mirror and they found that these commercials were the most effective among the 15 to 17 year olds.

SOURCE: "Major Studios Used Children to Test-Market Violent Films", New York Times, September 27, 2000.

Topics:

Statistical Concepts & the Movies

1. Based on the Reasons for Obtaining Data in your textbook, why are the movie studios gathering data?


2. Columbia Tristar used what kind of sampling method?


3. What kind of data is Columbia Tristar collecting?


4. Why did the studios take a sample rather than trying to interview the population of moviegoers (your text suggest three reasons)?


5. Is recruiting moviegoers out of a line at a movie theater an appropriate way to obtain a true random sample?


6. Who are movie studios targeting with these movies and who comprises the target population of their surveys?

Here are the questions...discuss them. (Think about if Statistics is useful, does it tell the average person something, or is it a tool to mess with people's heads?)

Explanation / Answer

1) Movie studios are gatherthe data for various resons.

a)to predict the sales of their merchendise and tie ups

b)To understand if they can profit by making a sequel

c) to understand the overall, average opinion of the viewers

Main reason is to understand if the new product launch is economically viable or not.

2) Stratified sampling method

3)they have collected data from the different age groups and different ethnic background.

they are trying to analyse if there is any realationship between the their individual preferences of the movie with their age or ethnicity. They are conducting a survey on the likes and dislikes of the movie.

4)

a) it would be difficult to collect the data for the entire population. and it is not economically viable option.

b)for a very lange sample, sample population is a good representation of the entire population.

C) they have collected data from different stratums implying they have considered more or less all possible factors which effects the data.

5)statisticall speaking reccruiting people from the line of movie goers is not a random sample. but since the population we are interested in is the one who watches moves, therefore picking people from the line of movie goers shold not effect our predicted values as such

6)Movie studios are targetting the age 12-17 poppulation. reason being even though they compromise 10 % of the American population, they are 17% of the total moviewatchers population. They are targetting these people so that they can cross sell their products with tie ups and merchandises.

'' you can, for example. never fretell what any one man will do, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to. Individuals vary , but percentages remain constant. so says the statiscian." sherlock Holmes (The sigh of Four)

It is difficult to take one side of the discussion. Though statistics is an important tool to understand the average behaviour of a population, it need to be used wisely. It evens out the outliers of the population.

(This is very general answer and Please edit it to your Class requirements)

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