Target Audience

The target audience is one of the most important elements to a film. Get it right and it will be a massive success. Market to the wrong audience, however, and the film will make very little money. Certain genre's cater more obviously to target audiences, for instance a female audience is more likely to watch Rom-Com's than a male audience, while more men watch more action films than women.

Thriller films are different. While many genres are easy to cater for, different sub-genre's within the thriller genre are targeted at different ages and genres. Many thrillers are rated at a 16-25 age range while others are aimed at an older audience. It is less the gender than the cultural capital and education levels which also dictate the Target Audience of a thriller. For instance, the middle class or better educated are more likely to watch films with complex stories, like Thrillers.
The classification of films can help determine the target audience in terms of Thrillers. Se7en, an 18, is aimed at a more mature audience while the 12 rated Inception and 15 rated Donnie Darko are aimed at older teenagers/young adults. The content in the film also allows gives an idea of this. Films with lots of violence are often aimed at men, such as Se7en, while adaptations of books, are aimed at fans of the book. Classics in this case, may be aiming for new audiences, such as the recent Sherlock Holmes films, while others are catering to their source materials target audience, the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo containing a lot of the books content, thus getting it rated as an 18 in the UK, in keeping with its adult themes

However, some studios pride themselves on multiple target audiences. Pixar, for instance, appears to be aimed at a younger audience, but will contain themes and jokes for adults as well, catering to all ages. This is extremely difficult to do, however, and if you miss both target audiences, then your film cannot be a success.

I feel that from looking at similar films at other stages, my target audience would be male's between 18 and 24, and would likely be rated at either a 12 or 15 by the BBFC. This is because this market makes up most 'cinema-goer's' and many existing thrillers aimed at this age are rated 12 or 15 (Inception, Memento, the Dark Knight) with only a few, more action orientated thrillers getting 18's (Die Hard, Aliens, Taken). A full Audience Profile can be found here