What age group was this movie originally marketed to when it was in theaters? I'm curious to know if like many older films in this genre it was originally marketed to the 12/13+ boys. Thanks!
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I think back then that disaster movies were, up to this point, just about a sure thing with audiences. AIRPORT, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, EARTHQUAKE, AIRPORT 1975, THE TOWERING INFERNO and AIRPORT 77 were all hits so my guess is the marketing was aimed at the fans of the genre (or its built in audience) and not a specific age group. Fortunately even the fans could smell that this film was a stinker and it was one of the biggest bombs of 1978 and so began the beginning of the end of the disaster movie which would still yield such bombs as METEOR, BEYOND THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, CONCORDE-AIPRORT 79, CITY ON FIRE and WHEN TIME RAN OUT - each one probably worse then the last though they are all horrible and each one a box office dud.
shareThis movie was originally PG rated in Australia, the UK & the US. Even aired on TV in Australia under the title Attack Of The Killer Bees in the mid 80s, or atleast i'm pretty sure it aired under that title... my memory is kinda of hazy as i was only around 7 years old. Strangely that aka title is not listed on here, only the primary title... The Swarm. Pretty sure it's this movie though, because i remember the little kid driving the car himself & that really appealing to me at that age & that wasn't in any other killer bee movies.
shareI think these movies were meant for all ages. Hence the wide range of ages of the actors/main characters. Someone for every member of the family to relate to - including Grams & Gramps (so different from movies today). Although it's kinda warped that all these kids in the movie were killed off and/or traumatized by the deaths of their families...musta scared the kids in the audience. Or fuelled their violent fantasies. :P
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