Google Trends
Google Trends is an application built directly into the search engine that essentially allows users to track and measure statistics on whatever they like, generating a rough idea of demand based on the regularity and line progress of searches for a key topic. For example, with horror films, by researching the commonality of key words, you can essentially focus test your movie to reach the widest possible audience. One of the most open trends at the moment is that of the paranormal, people simply can't get enough of the otherworldly, which isn't to say a cleverly budgeted and marketed film in a different vein couldn't make it's money, just that popular culture has a very intermittent taste when it comes to it's genre which has acquired ghosts for now.
As you can see, there is a pretty constant supply and demand for horror films and ghost related items that peaks towards the end of the year (presumably around Halloween) but a sharp increase in user searches between 2013 and 2015 for seemingly unknown reasons. This should hopefully demonstrate to you how user behaviour can erratically change in a very brief window of time, a trait the industry must be adaptable to in order to capitalize on current trends.
Since SYNTH falls most commonly into the realm of the Slasher when it comes to genre, it is only appropriate to consider this trend a good sign with the steady rise in popularity in recent years showing a return to form for style of filmmaking that was presumed to have run it's course a long time ago. Having said that, you can see how towards the back end of the 2000's there was still a bit of fatigue from the 80's to 90's glut that rushed the market, wearing audiences thin. With this in mind, SYNTH looks set to appeal to a wide and hungry audience giving the latter end of 2016/17 the greatest potential revenue stream for over a decade.
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Google trends have also taught us how popular culture best draws attention to movies with the increasingly prevalent list format, you can't seem to go five minutes without a 7 things you didn't know or a top 10 list popping up and chances are, if you're trying to appeal to the current generation of horror fans, you're going to want to play up social media trends like this. The chart on the right shows the crossover between Horror films and Top 10 lists nicely with now more than every being indicative of an audience that wants it's content truncated and digestible. If SYNTH is to do well, it will need to earn a place in lists of this type with sites like Buzzfeed and channels like WatchMojo raking in and audience of millions thanks to this heavily curated but ultimately click-baity technique.
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Finally, it would be worth considering that what is going on in the world will always influence what the audience wants; I think it's no surprise that within years of 9/11 there was a swathe of new coming of age war dramas and pro-military campaigns hitting films as this new found vigor for the war on terror inspired the masses to take up arms, leading to more and more troops coming home with injuries, P.T.S.D and horror stories about their time overseas. SYNTH is inspired by several things relevant to niche circles at the moment as showcased by the graph below but above all of them, the horror genre is still the highest ranking. As such, although Synth will play up it's more nuanced elements, putting an emphasis on Horror above all else is the way to move forward, appealing to an evidently craving people with an appetite for the genre above all else.