With regards to movies or other entertainment that is obviously fake violence, I think that many people just like to see stuff blow up.
Yes. That is very true. I took an advanced filmmaking class in high school, and this was one of the first things established. You can catch the audience's attention in a few ways. Explosions and violence immediately catches someone's eye and it causes the person to pay attention. If you are not sure what Im talking about-take a look at adds for movies. Notice what clips they take from certain movies. If there is some explosion in the movie-it will probably be in the add.
I made a music video based on this theory and violence on tv. It was made up of many explosions and a few other select violent scenes. I used scenes from movies such as Apocolypse Now!, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, among others. It was the second most popular video in the class. People said that it wasnt easy to take their eyes off the screen because of the explosions and violence that corresponded to the music.
I also created a music video featuring nothing but NASCAR wrecks for about 4 minutes. I put it in the local film festival. I didnt win anything, but my video was popular.