Magazine cover analysis

EMPIRE MAGAZINE

Empire is a well known film magazine, that revolves around the marketing, and endorsement of upcoming films, including reviews and interviews. In this cover, we are shown the character "Harley Quinn" overlaying the Empire logo. This is done to advertise the upcoming movie "Suicide Squad". The use of this character intrigues the audience to read this magazine, which is likely to include an excessive amount of promotion for the movie in this copy. Most of Empire Magazine's front covers include a colour scheme to match the character or actor shown on the cover, and various slogans and celeb name grabbers. Composition is a key factor of a successful magazine cover. A well composed cover leads to more buyers and a larger audience who will want to read on. This also helps celebrity endorsement and movie promotion. In-action shots of characters are a good way to give a taster to the movie as we see the character brought to life. Also, simplicity in a magazine cover keeps it brief and rather engaging as opposed to previous issues which rely on heavy use of writing and outrageous fonts. 

However, in this issue of Empire Magazine, it focuses widely on font imagery as opposed to the character itself. Although we are intrigued by Wolverine's character, the use of floating words in the background does not centre the issue on this particular movie, as it does in the Harley Quinn issue. This cover shows brief explanation into whats inside in a gripping and enticing manor. The use of "Star Wars: The musical?" as a rhetorical question engages the reader and makes them want to know if an actual musical is to be produced.