The four quadrant movie and how movie makers know what to do to make their movie appeal to all groups?
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The “four quadrants” are just ways of dividing the moviegoing public by age and gender. The rule of thumb that a movie must apply to at least two quadrants is essentially a way of saying “Don’t hyperfocus on just one group. Throw in something that a broader audience will enjoy.” A “two quadrant movie” is typically going to focus on two contiguous quadrants. That is, it’s either a movie for all kids/teens, a grown-up movie for men and women, a masculine movie for all ages, or a feminine movie for all ages.
So a “four quadrant” movie is just a movie that everyone will like. If studios had the magic touch to always make a four quadrant movie, they would. One way to attempt it is to focus on each quadrant one at a time. Some parts of the movie might be romantic (‘for the chicks”) while others are violent (“for the dudes”). Another is adding characters that each quadrant can identify with. A bunch of teens being menaced by a monster is a two quadrant movie. A stereotypical, mixed-gender nuclear family being menaced by the same monster has the potential for four.
Titanic is often cited as the perfect “four quadrant” movie, both in the sense that it blends extremely romantic and extremely action-filled elements and in the sense that pretty much everyone did, in fact, like it. A truly great four quadrant movie doesn’t just trade off scenes that each quadrant will be engaged by, essentially making each wait their turn for what the movie has promised them. It gets *everyone* engaged in *every* part. The men might come to the theater to see a big boat sink, but they get at least a little bit invested in Jack and Rose. The women came for the love story but need to see if it survives the disaster. Pulling a trick like that is extremely difficult, which is why “four quadrant” movie is such a big compliment in Hollywood.
The rough division is young men, young women, old men, old women. Movies generally try to appeal to at least two groups. How they guess what will appeal to which group? You can intuitively guess, obviously, but they also have really good data on what has worked in the past.
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