Science Fiction Movie Popularity

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Most sources of media, literature, and fine art have a target audience or specific group that they would most like to reach in order to be most successful. Defining popularity in today’s literature and film media has traditionally been measured by Nielsen ratings. An article which discusses the success of rivaling fantasy films; Harry Potter vs. Twilight determines through box office sales and related book sales finds Harry Pottery to be a superlative success only to be outdone by Twilights’ soundtrack sales (Nielsen). Previous research surrounding the fantasy title character and series focused on a number of diverse topics. Method Discussion Science Fiction Movie Preferences Manya Bohannon, Ashley Duckgeischel, Kimberly Lenggiere, & Jessica Villarreal Azusa Pacific University Chart #1 Chart #2 References Literature Review Results The participants that we used in this study were a combination of undergraduate and graduate students from Azusa Pacific and other Universities. Some of the participants were family members, but they were all in the age range of 20-30 years old. Overall, we were very surprised by the results of the survey. Our group had hypothesized that Harry Potter would be the movie preferred by the majority of college students. While Harry Potter himself was the preferred character chosen by the participants, college students surveyed actually preferred the Chronicles of Narnia… This study was conducted in order to investigate movie preferences among college and graduate students. In this study, we hypothesized that if given a choice, college students ages 20-30 years old would prefer to watch Harry Potter over other popular science fiction movies. The results proved to be very interesting because they contain a wide range of responses. Austin, B. A., (1981). Film Attendence: Why College Students Chose to See Their Most Recent Film. Black, S., (2003). Harry Potter: A Magical Prescription for Just About Anyone..

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Literature Review Most sources of media, literature, and fine art have a target audience or specific group that they would most like to reach in order to be most successful. Defining popularity in today’s literature and film media has traditionally been measured by Nielsen ratings. An article which discusses the success of rivaling fantasy films; Harry Potter vs. Twilight determines through box office sales and related book sales finds Harry Pottery to be a superlative success only to be outdone by Twilights’ soundtrack sales (Nielsen). Previous research surrounding the fantasy title character and series focused on a number of diverse topics. Similar levels of success are reflected on social networking sites where Harry Potter at 70% is slightly preferred to Twilight fans at 66% (Sniderman, 2011). The novels by J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter grew from a cult following to a world-renowned success as it far exceeded expectations, and grew to be a favorite among many youths as well as those in early adulthood. One study examining the motivation behind why college students choose to see a particular movie, found that peers and friends encouraging them to view the film is the main influencing factor (Bruce, 1981). However other research argues that preference of Genre may be a larger factor as college students are more interested in fantasy rather than science fiction films (Duebeck). A Brown and Patterson’s (2010) study looks at diverse pieces that have influenced both series from a marketing perspective to explain its popularity to the masses. The article highlights multiple factors from the story’s literary elements to it achieving a “blockbuster” status, as explanations for the series phenomenal success (Brown & Patterson, 2010).

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Literature Review Cont. As the science fiction and fantasy genres continue to be highly popular sources of entertainment for youth and those in early adulthood, it is important to explore the response of sub-cultures within diverse communities. Because “Harrymania” has reached virtually all populations and cultural groups, some have responded with strong negative reactions due to moral concerns and religious convictions. In conducting a modified meta-analysis of research at has been conducted on Harry Potter and its cultural impact, opinions have been strongly voiced in the Christian community both condemning its impact and proclaiming praises of the Harry Potter series. One author considers the effect of the immense popularity of Harry Potter as it has left its mark on the Christian community both through its rejection and internalization (Neal, 2001). Neal (2001) goes into greater detail to explain how the themes of prominent scenes in the Harry Potter series go against central beliefs of the Christian faith. At its inception Harry Potter had primarily been marketed to youth culture, leading many to become curious about how the Christian community responds to the targeting of its youth, with themes and religious practices vastly different from their own. Some Christians however have argued that the Christian community has been incorrect in accusing Harry Potter of simply glamorizing witchcraft and along with other fantasy films that incorporate the occult. One Christian Pastor argues that Harry Potter can be a powerful tool to illustrate to children about the teachings of Jesus Christ (Killinger, 2002). Those involved in the Christian culture are often skeptical of the defense of Harry Potter as being a positive work to teach children that parallels the lessons of Jesus’ teachings.

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Literature Review Cont. Meanwhile, others have approached the work as merely understanding the modern genre of fantasy. Authors Dickerson & O’Hara’s (2006) book, From Homer to Harry Potter: A Handbook on Myth and Fantasy uses this educational approach as they discuss how Christian should understand Harry Potter and similar works found in the genre. The relevance of observing and conceptualizing the understanding the perspective of different groups about a genre requires further research exploring why and where certain works, like Harry Potter are more appreciated and accepted. While Harry Potter continues to gain new fans with each new film and book release, it would seem that the average age of the “Harrymaniac” grows older since the first book originally was released in the U.S. in 1998. While it was the publishers that originally decided to target children as the primary audience, many who began reading the books when it was first released have continued with the series as they have grown up. One article that researched what motivated youth to read the Harry Potter, used web surveys and open discussion forums to explore the shift in focus of those born 1984-1990, versus those who have currently become interested in the series (Drouillard, 2010). The research found that this specific group differed from the general population as the original group valued the series for its high literary works, which helped form an emotional-attachment to the beloved books, as they “grew up” with the characters (Drouillard, 2010). One article that explores at the beloved character’s developmental journey process from youth into maturity can be seen in several themes in the novels (Gold, 2011). The author highlight’s a prominent theme that portrays an “appreciation of how extraordinary the ‘ordinary’ life” becomes, which is an important part of developmental in early adulthood, as individuals gain insight and wisdom through experience in their own lives (Gold, 2011).

Literature Review Cont. : 

Literature Review Cont. Harry Potter fans and advocates have not only been able to enjoy the readings, however those in ‘helping’ fields of study have been able to leverage the story and the emotional-attachment, as interventions in psychological treatment. One author explores the pathology of Harry Potter and has utilized certain Harry Potter images in therapy (Mulholland, 2007). An article published in the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy emphasized that the appeal of the characters is so familiar to individuals, that people naturally identify with the characters and begin to see parallels in their own lives, making it a powerful tool to help people cope in different life situations (Black, 2003).

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Method Participants The participants that we used in this study were a combination of undergraduate and graduate students from Azusa Pacific and other Universities. Some of the participants were family members, but they were all in the age range of 20-30 years old. Materials We used many different materials to perform this experiment. One of the materials we used was the Sakai course web page, which we instrumental in helping us to figure out the methods that we could use for the project. We also utilized a blog page that allowed our group to stay in constant communication about our project, and allowed us to work as a team to understand the process and results of the experiment. We used a survey on the website SurveyMonkey in order to gather our data, and also used email, facebook, and the telephone to remain in contact with our participants. Electronic communication was vital in keeping both our team and our participants on task and involved in the project. Our group was also able to use websites like Twitter to gather information in order to form our hypothesis, and met in person to discuss exactly what we would like to learn from this project.

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Method Cont. Procedure In order to set up this experiment, our group was able to use twitter, our blog page, email, and in person meetings. We examined and shared our own interests, and gathered information from peers to see what kind of interests they would be willing to share with us. As a group, we came to the conclusion that we would like to prove that Harry Potter is overall a better movie than Twilight, but with the help of our professor were able to find a topic that was broader and easier to relate to for most students. Our group then got together to refine our survey and submit the questions for approval. We posted the questions to SurveyMonkey and sent multiple emails reminding our participants to take the survey. We were able to gather data from the survey and review the results together.

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Results Survey Outcome Overall, we were very surprised by the results of the survey. Our group had hypothesized that Harry Potter would be the movie preferred by the majority of college students, as shown in chart #2 and #3 this was not proven. While Harry Potter himself was the preferred character chosen by the participants (chart #1), college students surveyed actually preferred the Chronicles of Narnia over Harry Potter and the other popular science fiction movie options. While chart #2 shows that Chronicles of Narnia was the most popular movie, Harry Potter did come in second place. The results were not what the group expected, but we recognized that our own enthusiasm for the Harry Potter franchise could have weighed heavily on our hypothesis and made us biased towards the outcomes we expected. Even though Harry Potter took second out of the options provided to the participants in chart #2, only two strongly agreed that they would rather watch the Harry Potter series than another popular science fiction movie. Three agreed and four were neutral. The survey results definitely showed us that while we may enjoy the Harry Potter books and movies, not all of our peers feel as strongly enthusiastic about them. Another surprise in our outcomes was the surprising popularity of Edward Cullen in chart #1 when we asked participants about their favorite characters in popular science fiction. This surprised our group because we felt twilight was actually the least popular of the movie options available to participants. Overall, we did not expect the survey results to be what they were, but learned that not all of our passions and opinions are shared by our peers.

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Results Cont. Means and Standard Deviation As shown in table #1, the standard deviation for all of our survey questions ranged from 1.7 to 3.6. We found that the greater the standard deviation, the farther apart the answers to our survey were. Given that so many of the standard deviations were in the one range, we concluded that many of our survey questions were very closely answered. The mean helped us to understand the answers were chosen by the test participants. The mean was consistently in the 3.2 range, which showed us that on average our participants answered very similarly. Qualitative Section It was very interesting to look at the qualitative questions because it was a way of gaining more knowledge on the participants’ views and opinions on the Harry Potter movies and overall science fiction movies. To our surprise, four of the participants wrote that they had never seen any of the Harry Potter movies, which could explain the lower ratings of the movie compared to other science fiction movies. In response to question number ten, which asked, “Briefly discuss one aspect of Harry Potter movies that you like”, several participants wrote that they like the theme of good versus evil. Other participants wrote that they liked “the creativity and fantasy involved”, “the spells and the story line”, and others wrote, “I like being able to see the books come alive on the big screen.” In response to question number nine, which asks, “Briefly describe one aspect of science fiction movies that you like”, some participants wrote that they liked, “the use of scientific theory”, “the use of my imagination” and “new possibilities.”

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Chart #1

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Chart #2

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Chart #3

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Table #1 Question Mean SD 1 3.2 2.774887385 2 3.2 3.563705936 3 3.2 2.588435821 4 3.2 3.563705936 5 3.2 1.788854382 6 3.2 1.30384048 7 4 1.825741858 8 3.75 1.707825128

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Discussion Summary of Results This study was conducted in order to investigate movie preferences among college and graduate students. In this study, we hypothesized that if given a choice, college students ages 20-30 years old would prefer to watch Harry Potter over other popular science fiction movies. The results proved to be very interesting because they contain a wide range of responses. For example, on question number eight, when asked what their favorite movie character was, 42% of the participants chose Harry Potter, over Edward Cullen, Peter Pevensie, and Jesse Aarons, which supported our initial hypothesis. However, on question number seven, the participants chose the Chronicles of Narnia over Harry Potter as their favorite movie. The responses to this question did not support our initial hypothesis. Overall, the results demonstrated a wide variety of answers on the participants’ likes and dislikes of both Harry Potter and popular science fiction movies. Further research is suggested in this area because of the intrigue in determining the trends of movie popularity among college and graduate students. Whether it is science fiction or fantasy, movies play a significant role in the way we entertain ourselves. Limitations Due the small sample size of 16 participants, this study could not be generalized to a wider population. This study was limited only to a small population of college and graduate students mainly located in the Azusa area. To increase the external validity, a similar study could be done with a much larger sample size and with a more diverse population. Due to our inability to use more than ten questions, we were unable explore other questions that could have resulted in a better understanding of which type of movie college students prefer. For future research, it would be most beneficial to have a survey with more questions in order to obtain more statistically significant results.

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References Austin, B. A., (1981). Film Attendence: Why College Students Chose to See Their Most Recent Film. http://eric.ed.gov:80/ERICWebPortal/search/ detailmini.jspnfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED199770&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED1 99770 Black, S., (2003). Harry Potter: A Magical Prescription for Just About Anyone. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy 46.7, 540-544. Retrieved from: http://0-search.proquest.com.patris.apu.edu/docview/62229779?accountid=8459 Brown, S., & Patterson, A. (2010). Selling Stories: Harry Potter and the Marketing Plot. Psychology and Marketing 27(6). Retrieved From: http://0-search.proquest.com.patris.apu.edu/docview/288247798/1365164749C65227F5E/1?acco untid=8459 Dickerson, M. T., & O’Hara, D. L. (2006). From Homer to Harry Potter: A Handbook on Myth and Fantasy. Grand Rapids, MI. Brazos Press. Drouillard, C. L. (2010). Growing Up With Harry Potter: What Motivated Youth to Read (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from: http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-04112009-123711/unrestricted/DrouillardCDissertation.pdf Duebeck, L. (1988). Science in Cinema: Teaching Science Fact Through Science Fiction Films. New York. Teachers College Press. Gold, S. N. & Yates, D. (2011). The Boy Who Died. PsycCRITIQUES . doi: 10.1037/a0026048 Killinger, J. (2002). God, the Devil, and Harry Potter: A Christian Minister’s Defense of the Beloved Novels. New York. St. Martin’s Griffin. Mulholland, N. (2005). Psychology of Harry Potter: An Unauthorized Examination of the Boy Who Lived. [DX Reader version]. Retrieved from: http://0 site.ebrary.com.patris.apu.edu/lib/apuebrary/docDetail.action?docID=10298267 Neal, C. (2001). What’s a Christian To Do with Harry Potter. Colorado Springs. Colorado. Waterbrook Press. Nielsen Co., (July 14, 2009). Harry Potter: Wizard of All Media vs. Twilight Vampire. Retrieved from: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/harry-potter-wizard-of-all-media-vs-twilight-vampire/ Sniderman, Z. (November, 18, 2011). Harry Potter: The Social Universe Picks a Winner. Retrieved from: http://mashable.com/2011/11/18/twilight-breaking-dawn-harry-potter/