“Once Upon A time in San Francisco – The Black Hatchet” is a Historical/Action/Adventure/Martial Arts film and comic book with elements of the “superhero” motif (Marvel/DC/Dark Horse) that is the most popular genre in American cinema. Moreover, the cast and story is written to appeal to multiple International audiences.

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Most of the main characters are in the highly sought-after age group 18 – 34, with the Black Hatchet, an emigrant from Scotland, in his mid-twenties, as is his love interest Lorna, plus his kidnapped sister Rose is 14.

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Furthermore there is a culturally diverse cast that are predominately Chinese (this is a key foreign audience for action film distribution, see table below), plus Native and African American roles. Prominently, there are strong female characters, especially for 1906.

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According to SAWA, Global Cinema Advertising Association, “specifically, cinemagoers are typically younger than the population with generally half of the visits made by people in the key 14-34 demographic. Cinema going has increased against all age groups in the last few years, with the most dramatic growth seen amongst the over 25’s.”

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“Approximately ¾ of a typical cinema audience are frequent cinemagoers, who go to the movies on average at least once every four weeks . . . are usually young and affluent, with high disposable incomes. They are avid shoppers, into fashion and technology and lead busy and active lives . . .” 

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In addition, according to the GITNUX Market Data Report 2024, “the most popular genre of movies by American audiences for the past 22 years is Action/Adventure . . . the three highest grossing movies of all time are all Marvel movies.”

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According to AMERICAN FILM MARKET “action films . . . perform disproportionality best in Asia and weakest in Europe.”

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Therefore, a Historical/Action/Adventure/Martial Arts film with cross-section of cultures and women featuring Asian characters will be eye-catching to global and specifically Pacific Rim audiences generating desirable distribution channels. In the chart below, zero indicates the global average performance, so a positive score indicates that the genre in question performs disproportionality well in that territory.