Magazines

The purpose of a magazine film review is to gain further advertising and allowing the potential audience to gain an opinion about the film and to gain additional information. The audience look to magazine film reviews to gain a 'third party opinion'. In magazines this is a film critic, considered to be an expert and therefore want an informed decision on the film. Furthermore the advertising potential that a good magazine film review can give a good film is immense. So much so that advanced previews are based on receiving good critical opinion to further advertise the film and may win over the audience who might not have seen the film.

Within the UK the main film review magazines are 'Empire' and 'Total Film'. These magazines are completely based on retail potential. However for critical opinion the main film review magazine in the UK is 'Sight And Sound'.

Both 'Empire' and 'Total Film' are based upon purely market research. They are very much the Hollywood style of publishing. Most critics would say that the magazines are 'style over substance'. We can see the Hollywood emphasis on these magazines as it is always a huge blockbuster film that is on the front cover. The content is very much the same, they present the gloss and glamour associated with Hollywood.

However, 'Sight And Sound' magazine is very much the opposite and would be considered the critics choice. It is endorsed by the British Film Institute, and unlike 'Empire' or 'Total Film' it would be considered 'substance over style'. It presents a more global focus and even reviews foreign films.

'Sight And Sound' target their audience by being very detailed and often describing the whole film. Whereas 'Empire' and 'Total Film' outline the film but do not include any spoilers and generally present the film very well, intertwined with witty humour. Meanwhile 'Sight And Sound' give analysis rather than outline the plot mixed with interviews and dry humour. 'Sight And Sound' often assume that the audience knows everything about cinema, However the more Hollywood based magazines such as 'Empire' or 'Total Film' try to spoon feed all the information to the audience.

The Target audience for both 'Empire' and 'Total Film' are mainly 17-30 year old males. This is due to a very masculine style for the magazine and the reasonable price of £3.99. 'Sight And Sound' on the other hand have a more upmarket audience even though it costs £3.95. For the audience that it targets 'Empire' and 'Total Film' magazine present a very colourful layout full of pictures and information that isn't very relevant just to fill the page. These magazines also have add-ons such captions which try to add humour. 'Sight And Sound' also try to add humour in captions, however the humour is targeted specifically at their audience and is not very obvious to a normal film goer.