A complication in genre study, especially in contemporary cinema, is genre mixing. The hybrid film is one we are increasingly used to working with, and on that may often also include some intertextual feature. The Matrix for example is a sci-fi thriller with ingredients of the Hong Kong action and martial arts genre (Patrick Phillips 2000).

Genre is a classification system. It is commonly applied to films, and brings several ideas, standards, and expectations. There are numerous types of genre, that each holds its own particular set of standards. Without the great organization of genre in the film world, it would be nothing more than an unorganized list. The importance of genre, as well as the role it plays in film decides the audience, ratings, and sometimes even the directors and producers. Genre has become a tool used to draw in particular groups based on its organization of films. It has helped expand the world of film, because it directly points the audience where they want to go. According to Shylon Baumann, "To the extent that there is a distinct form of symbolic capital available to consecrate cultural products of a particular genre, the field is more autonomous" (405). Baumannn notably points out that genre has distinction. He also points out it is through this distinction that it is able to control and grant classification to cultural products. Genre has the power to direct a film where it is going to be classified. He notes that with this "capital" power, genre has become a strong independent source.

Genre's strong independence influences the media and cultures. It has the governing principal to praise or downgrade a film. Society uses it as a source of classification, whether positive or negative. The numerous forms of genre point distinctly to a particular category, no matter how unfavorable. With genre's ability to classify films, it also delivers certain prospects or anticipations about a film. Since the list of genres has dramatically grown over the years, these anticipations have come to create a sort of standards about themselves as well as distinctions. It has also caused for a sort of blending of genres within films.

The mixing of genres has become a staple in many films. The films’ either cannot escape it or use it as a tool to attract a wider audience. Since the genre classification system has expanded, it is finding more and more films which honor one or more types of classification. According to The Media Student's Book, "Media forms have consequently become more and more cross-generic or hybrid, as audiences have grown accustomed to a huge amount of media output, so that different kinds of music, television and film clash and mix genres" (77). Society is being slammed with media, it seems only natural that eventually the genres would start blurring together, thus creating a new type of genre. The overwhelming flow of media being produced has begun to recognize the numerous appetites of its audience. It has agreed to satisfy it with the hybrid film. By fulfilling the desired prospects of several different audiences, the hybrid film has an appeal which attracts not just a particular group, but several different ones. According to