Audience Expectations - Action Genre

As part of research into genre and expectations of genre, I interviewed various people on their opinions of the action genre, using the following questions:

1. What do you expect to see in the first 2 minutes of the film?
2. What sort of main characters would there be? (Male? Female? Age?)
3. What kind of event do you expect to occur/begin within the film?

I noted down what they said after asking each question.

Here are the results:
16 year old:

• In the first two minutes I expect an introduction to the movie, setting the scene
• I think the main character is most likely to be a middle aged man
• There would be build up to an action sequence such as a car chase

43 year old:

• Titles, introducing characters
• Male, around 25
• A fight that results in someone dying, explosions, etc

17 year old:

• There should be titles and introduction of characters
• A young female character, in her 20s, and a male who is a little older
• There would be build up to a gun fight

14 year old:

• The scene would be set, introduces one or two main characters
• Two middle aged males
• An intense fight that would involve explosions

19 year old:

• Introduction of character and setting, probably an urban area such as a big city
• Main characters would mostly be middle-aged men, with a few female characters
• A dramatic fight scene betweens rivals- the 'bad guys' and the 'good guys'

 32 year old:

• Shots of the setting- a city
• Female and male characters, middle aged, probably rich or powerful
• A fight, conflict

From these results it can be clearly seen that most people believe that the main characters in action films are male and in positions of power. The setting for the beginning of an action film is most commonly seen as being somewhere urban, such as a large city, and that the first two minutes should highlight this. These results also show that most people believe that action movies are usually based around conflict- normally peaking with a fight that involves lots of action, such as a car chase, gun fight or explosion.