Audience Responses

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is a 2011 fantasy film directed by David Yates from a screenplay by Steve Kloves. The film is the second of two cinematic parts based on the 2007 novel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling. It is the sequel to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010) and the eighth and final instalment in the Harry Potter film series. The story concludes Harry Potter's quest to find and destroy Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes in order to stop him once and for all.

In terms of a target audience, Harry Potter certainly fits into the mainstream psychographic profile, as the films aren't individual in terms of narrative, and they don't show any technical excellence in any way. As this is the concluding film in one of the biggest book and film franchises in the world, a large capacity of this audience will be fans of the books and previous films, however, because this film comes with a lot of anticipation as it is the final one, people may seek out this film for social interaction. Despite this however, it is most likely that people will watch this film purely for entertainment or escapism, as that is the main purpose of it.

The poster for this film isn't particularly unique, instead it's rather bland. The triangular composition draws your attention to the title and our main three protagonists, with the recognisable location of Hogwarts in the background. The colours are dark and ominous, with the brightest part of it coming from Harry's wand. The poster gets its message across, and involves the use of a spell coming from Harry Potter's wand which can act as a referential code as fans of the franchise will know that this is the expelliarmus spell, which Harry uses against Voldemort in competition with the killing curse. In terms of age, the target audience would primarily be for younger people, as the films centre around teenagers so they may personally identify with the characters. Additionally, the age may fluctuate, as I would argue that Harry Potter is a franchise that spreads across generations as people who have grown up with it and followed it will be a target audience for this product. I don't think that this product targets any particular gender, as both male and female characters are protagonists.

In terms of the preferred reading, I think that the aim of this product is to provide entertainment and to bid farewell to a long running franchise. We have a binary opposition of hero vs villain throughout, and therefore the ideology of good prevailing is a prominent one. Because people will have been anticipating this for so long, the hype generated for this movie in particular would be massive, therefore there would be a lot of expectations for the film to live up to the books and also the success of the previous films. However, due to the controversy surrounding the author of the books, people may be inclined to take an oppositional reading to this product as they don't align with their views and therefore won't watch the films.