The Fault In Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars (TFIOS) is an American romantic comedy-drama based on a young adult (YA) novel of the same name by John Green. It’s release was greatly anticipated, particularly among Green’s dedicated followers the “nerd fighters”. This follows the same path of YA novel to film success as franchises such as Twilight, The Hunger Games and Divergent. These films all also feature young female main characters that are seen as role models by many fans. YA novel adaptations have the advantage of a dedicated pre-existing fanbase who are media-crazy and the most frequent attendees of the cinema. TFIOS follows the age old tale of young love and loss which has proven countless times to be immensely popular. It could be said that it carries an air of Shakespearean tragedy; the title is taken from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars/ But in ourselves, that we are underlings”. However, unlike many modern films following this cliché, TFIOS maintains a more organic approach with no CGI fight scenes, dystopian universes or supernatural beings. Instead it relies the emotional aspect of the film; “You have to concede the laser-guided accuracy and psychotic vehemence with which it goes for the tear duct.” [1] “a perfectly crafted machine for making you cry” [1]. TFIOS unites all who watch it in the empathy they feel for these carefully designed characters giving people a satisfying cinematic experience. Various other elements played a role in making TFIOS such a commercial success; a significant one being social media. Green’s Youtube channel Vlogbrothers has built a following of over 2.2 million subscribers in the last 7 years. Hype was built up through a marketing campaign on instagram called SharedRank which reached a claimed 16 million people and resulted in more than 350,000 engagements [2]. This contemporary method of advertising not only utilises the accessibility of social media but is also designed to specifically target those who are most likely to be interested in the film. Together this resulted in TFIOS grossing $48.2 million in it’s opening weekend while only costing $12 million to produce [3]. It was reported that it has just crossed $100 million domestically and $165 worldwide, making it one of the most profitable films released in 2014 [4]. A film's success is generally measured by gross yet this doesn’t truly represent financial success as well as net; however gross sounds much more impressive so that is what is reported. Yet both gross and net don't truly represent popularity as they are dependent upon ticket prices which vary greatly. The best measurement for a film’s commercial success is ticket sales. Cinema attendance peaked in the UK in 1946 at over 1.64 billion before a dramatic drop in the 60s and 70s to reach just 54 million in 1984 [3]. This is because of the growth of TV ownership and video rental. Even though cinema attendance picked up to just under 180 million in 2011 it is still a remarkable drop in numbers. This is most likely the reason for ticket sales not being usual measurement of a film’s success; it’s an embarrassment. Sources: 1. www.theguardian.com/film 2. marketingland.com 3. www.forbes.com 4. www.deadline.com 5. www.economicshelp.org