Audiences

This chapter looks at how audiences, through their choice of screenings and their response to films, can transform production trends and the decisions made about which films are made at the planning stage of film production. It analyses the production and early distribution history of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner that bear classification struggles encountered during its production, which were driven by a fear that it wouldn't be a suitable vehicle for mainstream audiences. It also confirms the way audiences are more active, appreciative, and diverse in their consumption of a film once the tag of mainstream flop has been removed by time, distance, and context. The chapter describes how Blade Runner audiences are sovereign and not purely connected to shaping production trends. It recounts how Blade Runner immediately found a cult audience on a late-night cable television, and in terms of video rental became a home box-office smash.