Audience Research...

Gender

We wanted our film to appeal to both a male and female audience and hopefully achieved this through the narrative and genre. Due to the genre of Action/Thriller typically being aimed at a male audience, and we have made it more accessible by adding a female protagonist, which opens up the audience to female viewers. We also included elements into the storyline that would appeal to a mass audience; action scenes, suspense and also the drama and relationships.

The addition of the the female lead is similar to the film 'The Hunger Games' in which the main character - Katniss Everdeen is female. This possibly lead to females still being attracted to the film despite its action tendencies and evidently, did not effect the male audience either.

"According to a recent tracking report, 73% of young women surveyed had definite interest in seeing the movie, a "staggering" figure on its own, according to a former studio executive. But male interest could boost the box office for "The Hunger Games" exponentially, with 48% of young men saying they're definitely interested in seeing the movie." 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204603004577267832212316716.html

Upon the release of the film, both men and women showed an interest in seeing the film due to the genre being male-aimed and the protagonist being female.

Age
The main protagonist is a teenager, which determines the audience, because she is around 17/18. Having this younger age means that that we could still explore mature themes but did not have to focus on adulthood. It also allows the target audience to include many ages.
Verisimilitude plays a part in the target audience. The more relatable that character is in both age and gender, the more likely the viewers will be the same age or alike in gender.


Characteristics
Again, verisimilitude plays a large part in the audience that will view it ultimately, the more relatable, the more likely the audience will see it.
Ariadne is isolated and cut off, which is a trait that many people experience at one point or another, and this will help the audience to instantly identify with Ari, because they know what she has gone through.

We want the film, much like Inception, to be open to any age, but not rate it as a PG so that teenagers are prevented from seeing it because they think it's too general or even aimed at a younger audience, and not aimed at teenagers.