Research into Romantic Comedies & Classification

Research into Romantic Comedies & Classification



2008 was a great year for the Box Office UK as it grew to a record £850 million. The top film of 2008 was Mamma Mia which is a romantic comedy and has gone down in history by becoming the highest grossing film of all time in the UK, which means romantic comedies becoming increasingly popular. Another romantic comedy which was in the top five best film releases of 2008 is Sex in the City which was made in the USA.

Four Weddings and a Funeral is an English romantic comedy which is the top independent UK film which shows that the public do enjoy watching romantic comedies even if they are independent. This is also inspirational for me and my media team as we will be an independent group making a romantic comedy.

Comedy is currently the UK’s favourite genre and making almost a quarter of the Box Office in 2008. Comedy was the dominate genre of films sold in 2008 accounting for around 22% o the market figure. The next genre was action with 18% of all sales. However although comedy did exceptionally well in 2008, it did perform as well as it did in 2007.

Comedy was again this year the top grossing genre which means comedy alone turned over £222.4 million, which was followed by action which achieved £203.7 million. Primarily, comedy did so well because of the record breaking Mamma Mia which was the highest grossing film of all time.

In 2008 the Box Office released 140 comedy films which toped all other genres, however only 7 romance films toped the UK box office which states that romance is not as popular has comedy, however merging the two genres it will be drawing two types of audience together so that will be increasing the amount of viewers.


Classification

All films in the UK must carry a classification indicating the age group suitable to view the film. The British Board of Film Classification classifies most of the films of the theatre, however some local authority’s also can grant their own classification.

The box office released 193 films and15 rating topped all other classifications. It also made the most gross profit at the box office. The top film of this classification was Sex in the City which is also a romantic comedy and classified 15 rated film. The lowest gross profit made at the box office was 18 rating which only turned made 0.1 million gross box office. This is because of the rude and offence nature of 18 classified films the audience is very restricted.

From the classification 15 and above the nature of the film contains much stronger material than any other younger classification. Most of the older classified the films (depending of what genre it is), are more likely to involve adult – oriented topics.

If the classification of the film is U rated, then the film is limited to what it can show. The film has to make sure that all the material showing is suitable for all ages and contains no material likely to harm or offend anyone of any age or culture.

PG classification is abbreviated for Parental Guidance. Which means young children are suitable to watch the film, however an adult should be present at the time because the child may feel uncomfortable at times as the film may contain mild, infrequent language or mild fantasy violence.

The next rating is 12A, which means 12 years of ages accompanied with an adult. This classification allows the film to have mild language, moderate violence and sex; it is also aloud to show drug use which is band from any younger rating.

Rating 15 is the next rating above 12A and there is a large gap between what can been shown in a 12A and a 15. 15 is currently the most popular rating of film mainly because the martial approved for the film is much stronger and can me more attacking/shocking. The language in a 15 can be a great deal stronger and the film can contain scenes of a sexual nature and strong violence.