Examples of Audience Reception

Fight Club is a drama film directed by David Fincher in 1999. The target audience for Fight Club would primarily be men, aged 18-40, given the intense use of sex and violence, and also the underlying themes and issues discussed within. The majority of the audience would be the explorer, given that the film is all about enlightenment through new and abstract life experiences, albeit in a cynical way. The enlightenment in this film in particular is the realisation that humanity isn't special, and that everyone is really just waiting to die. The humour is also black and sadistic, and quite definitely the opposite of what the aspirer would be attracted to. This being said, over the 15 years of its release, the roaring popularity of the film would possibly land it in the Mainstream category, as numerous people watch the film solely to fit in with a crowd; these are also known as 'trendies.'

The preferred reading for Fight Club is that, in modern society, misandry is overlooked, and that men are stripped of their masculinity by the media, and therefore society. A prime example of how the encoders have expressed this is through dialogue and exposition; one character says to another, when talking about an advertisement for underwear and how the model is very muscular, "is that what a man looks like?" This line makes a very strong statement about how the media have created a false representation of what men should look like, for example, covered head to toe in muscle, short hair, facial hair, etc... In a society warped by this ideology, men who are considered attractive will always share these traits. The encoders of Fight Club have tried to convey this belief system, and exaggerated the effects of such.
The encoders are also trying to say that violence should not be resorted to as a way to boost ego and bravado. This is encoded through the line "everywhere we went, we were sizing things up", which signifies how the aforementioned ideology of male image has distorted how men view themselves and how they should act. The film accurately shows how men act more like primates than women do, given that men will often resort to violence in order to feel fulfilled. Through the underground boxing clubs that are talked about in Fight Club, the men involved have suddenly started to believe that violence is an appropriate way to restore one's masculinity; in an attempt to reduce male oppression through private fighting, the men have become so involved in the concept of violence that they can't quit.

An oppositional reading for Fight Club would be to completely exclude the idea that this, in any way, satires the wafer-thin male hero that has gone unquestioned for so long, and to focus on how the film still glorifies brutality and violence. The two main characters in the film seem quite smug about themselves after the have delved into the world of fighting, one even blackmailing their boss (though this could be a result of both the violence and the severe insomnia/depression), and so someone with an oppositional view could argue that this film only promotes how egotistical men will become if they realise that they can, in fact, win something in a physical conflict.
One's cultural experience, for instance the rise of radical feminism, may lead to this sort of oppositional reading. The film focuses heavily on the bravado of a male, usually associated with libido, and so the oppositional reading may see it as this behaviour being endorsed.

There are several situational variables that could lead to a negotiated reading of the text, but one in particular comes to mind; spoilers. Fight Club is a very plot heavy film, and therefore requires all concentration in order to, not only understand, but to also be fully immersed and (ergo) surprised by such twist. Distractions may cause a lapse in concentration, which is detrimental to the involvement of the film, and a misunderstanding may be caused as a result; this is the negotiated reading.