‘Audience engagement with comedy films in small European markets’

Comedy Films are a popular genre among audiences in Europe, especially in small European film markets (Higson, 2021a, b; Jones, 2024). Despite its popularity, there is a gap in the empirical study of its audiences, that this paper addresses, by asking (1) How do comedies perform in small European markets? (2) What factors motivate audiences to engage with comedies in those markets? Drawing on a theoretical approach to audiences as active meaning-makers (Bengesser et al. 2023; Rohn, 2011), we conducted a mixed methods study on comedy audiences across seven small European markets: Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Flanders, Ireland, Lithuania, and Portugal (as part of the project CresCine). We combined quantitative data from the European Audiovisual Observatory, with qualitative data (86 interviews and media diaries). Our findings show that audiences value comedy depictions of their national cultures and identities, and it is through actual viewing practices that cultural elements are made relevant. Audiences are critical of stereotypes or flat stories, and highlight content over form, when aware of the small scale of their own countries’ film industry. We conclude that comedy films and their audiences are relevant for small European film markets, culturally and economically (with high production and consumption figures).