Empire Cover Analysis

 

This issue of Empire focuses on "The A Team." Self-titled as, "The Ultimate Action Special," this edition has two alternate covers , allowing audiences to choose between this cover and The Expendables cover.

The background again reflects the theme of the film. Fire lines the background behind the masthead, appearing as though an explosion has taken place behind the four characters of the A-Team. This emphasises the action theme of the issue. The props used in the main image also highlight this theme, the guns, cigar and of course the dog tags all add to the effect of their action hero personas.
The colour scheme used includes red,gold,white and black. All strong colours, they ensure that sell lines appear clearly to the viewers.  Above "The A-Team" sell line, we can also observe the line "We love it when a plan comes together." This of course is a popular quotation from the franchise, which readers will immediately recognise, and the A-Team already has a large fan base, meaning that the issue is bound to attract attention.

Subsidiary images are positioned along the bottom of the cover in a way that appears like a film reel, fitting in with the theme of the film magazine. The four images also all seem to display action film characters and images. These are placed at the bottom of the cover , and no other sell lines are placed around the main image. This is fairly uncommon, but allows the image to be the centre of attraction , and the bar code is placed nearer the middle of the cover to allow the other features to line the bottom of the cover.

The font used above the masthead also corresponds with the action movie genre, as it is made to appear like stamp lettering, used for official documents and files in films such as these.
The "world exclusive" sell line at the bottom also features "Captain America, the planet's first interview." Again making it seem as though the reader will be accessing exclusive information, which no other magazine could offer them. The "Captain America" aspect may also entice super hero and comic fans, so the issue is aimed at a wide market.
As film magazines are generally aimed at males, action/super hero film articles are likely to interest a predominantly male readership , so the magazine clearly knows it's target market, and how best to sell their product to it.