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23 November 2023

Exposed Magazine

The phrase film genre essentially applies to commercial films that tell familiar stories with familiar situations and characters through the process of variation and repetition. Movies that are based primarily on a commercial angle follow a tried and tested formula that has been successful in the past, and such formulae are termed a genre in the movie industry.

Movie genres play an important and impactful part in influencing the audience in their decision-making process and the basis for their choices of movies to watch. Let us understand how a movie’s genre influences moviegoers’ decisions with the following points and the help of a list of movies by genres to show how genres decide the acceptance and success of a movie.

  1. Individual preferences

As individuals, we all have our own personal preferences for genres as per our interests and tastes. Someone who is adventurous by nature will prefer an adventure or action genre, while a person who has a very active imagination and is romantic would prefer the romance or fantasy genre.

  1. Emotions

Human beings are emotional beings with varied moods that change as per their emotions and experiences, and movie genres evoke different emotions in different individuals. So, someone who is under stress would prefer to choose a light-hearted comedy genre, or someone who seeks thrills would opt for the thriller genre. Movies are an immersive experience that gives the audience the opportunity for emotional engagement. Previous experiences also play an important role in influencing others and popularizing a genre or movie for their feel-good or social awareness factors, for instance.

  1. Movie promotions

Nowadays, movies are heavily marketed and promoted by movie studios and production houses, with an emphasis on their genre. The emphasis on genres is specifically to target and entice the target audiences. A well-planned and executed marketing plan can make a world of difference in shaping perceptions and attracting the audience by piquing their curiosity. Companies responsible for the promotions of movies are handed over a list of movies by genres by movie studios to design the promotional strategy and tools highlighting their genres.

  1. Social influences

Social and cultural preferences play a major role in influencing society, thereby making certain genres more popular than others based on these cultural trends. Most times, such trends are more prevalent in certain regions or communities. Genre trends are also often based on ideological or moral values, with entire communities subscribing to similar tastes in movies.

  1. International trends

Movie industries around the world go through a cycle of genre trends where a specific genre holds supreme, taking international movie-watching trends by storm. Take, for example, the most popular list of movies by genre in the fantasy genre or the superhero genre and how enamored the majority of audiences became during the period these genres were trending internationally.

  1. Entertaining and educative

The few hours in the movie theater are an immersive experience where emotions are evoked by the movie and are a much-needed break from everyday life and its issues. The choice or popularity of genre relies heavily on the content of the movie and what it offers to the audience—escapism, entertainment, or a thought-provoking and humane experience.

List of movies by genre

The following list of movies by genre, consisting of a few all-time favorite movies and a few that are trending at present, will further establish the impact of genres on audiences when choosing to watch a movie:

  • The Marvels: Superhero Genre
  • Inception: Sci-fi Adventure Genre
  • The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Western Adventure Genre
  • Harry Potter series: Fantasy genre
  • Pulp Fiction: Crime Drama Genre
  • Thelma and Louise: Drama, Adventure, and Crime
  • Ed Wood: Biographical Drama
  • Psycho: A Horror Mystery Thriller
  • The King’s Speech: A biographical-historical drama
  • Oppenheimer: Biographical-historical drama
  • Five Nights at Freddy’s: Horror
  • Pretty Woman: Romance
  • The Lion King: Animation and Drama

Suffice it to say that movie genres are the markers that signal the type of movie to its audience, which not only attracts the target audience but also creates a curiosity in them to eagerly wait for the movie’s release in theaters. A movie made in the trending genre is sure to find a large audience, at times making it a success even before its release just by highlighting the genre in its promotions.