Hollywood embraces the “chick flick” – NOT THAT INTO YOU and CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC are only the two latest successes!
by Steve MasonHollywood execs seem to be waking up to the power of women at America’s multiplexes. The success of He’s Just Not That Into You (Warner Bros) and this weekend’s Confessions of a Shopaholic (Disney) can be traced to Meryl Streep’s witty riff on the tyrannical Anna Wintour in The Devil Wears Prada in the summer of 2006. Prada opened to a $27.5M weekend on its way to a $124.75M domestic cume (Streep also earned an Oscar nomination).
Then in July of 2007, New Line grabbed an almost identical $27.47M with the opening weekend of the female-skewing Hairspray, translating to $118.87M domestic. Also Enchanted, starring Amy Adams, was a hit for Disney over the holidays reaching $127.8M domestic.
In 2008 the game changed forever as women began flexing their box office muscle in a big way. 27 Dresses (Fox), starring Katherine Heigl from Grey’s Anatomy, debuted to $23M in January on its way to a domestic cume of $76.8M. Then came the Digital 3D phenomenon Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds (Disney), which enjoyed a meteoric $31.1M opening 3-day, finishing with a tween-fueled $65.2M. The all-girl comedy Baby Mama (Universal), starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, came along in the spring with a nifty $17.4M opening, finishing at $60M.
Then the all female Fantastic Four” landed – Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Cattrall and Kristin Davis – in mega-hit Sex & The City. After a mind-boggling $57M opening weekend, the HBO-to-big screen adaptation kept selling tickets to the tune of $152.2M in the US, becoming 2008’s eleventh-best grossing movie.
In fact, you can make a strong argument that 2008 releases Twilight ($187.9M cume), Mamma Mia ($144.1M cume), Beverly Hills Chihuahua ($94.5M cume) and High School Musical 3 ($90.5M cume) were also chick flick hits. Here’s a complete list of last year’s biggest female-skewing movies.
The cast of TWILIGHT
TOP GROSSING CHICK FLICKS OF 2008
Twilight – $187.9M cume
Sex & the City – $152.6M cume
Mamma Mia! – $144.1M cume
Beverly Hills Chihuahua – $95.5M cume
High School Musical 3: Senior Year – $90.5M cume
27 Dresses – $76.8M cume
Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds – $65.2M cume
Baby Mama – $60.5M cume
The House Bunny – $48,2M cume
Made of Honor – $46M cume
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 – $44M cume
The Secret Life of Bees – $37.7M cume
Definitely Maybe – $32.2M cume
The Other Boleyn Girl – $26.8M cume
TOTAL 2009 GROSS – $1.14 billion cume
Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Anniston and Jennifer Connolly in HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU
The first chick flick out of the gates in 2009 was the Kate Hudson-produced Bride Wars (Fox), which should finish its US theatrical engagements with about $60M. He’s Just Not That Into You (Warner Bros), based on the bestseller co-written by Sex & the City writers Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, is holding up extraordinarily well in its second weekend. I am projecting a #2 finish for the 4-day with a possible $23.9M and a new cume just shy of $60M. Meanwhile, Confessions of a Shopaholic, one of this week’s wide openings, seems destined for $20M or so by Tuesday morning.
When all is said and done, 2009 could be an even bigger year for female-geared releases. Here’s how the remainder of the year lays out.
February 20 – Fired Up (Sony)
Two popular high school guys quit football to join the cheerleading team.
February 27 – Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert (Disney)
The title says it all. Every tween girl in America will see it at least once.
March 20 – Sunshine Cleaning (Overture)
Amy Adams (Enchanted) and Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada) star in this Grand Jury Prize nominee from last year’s Sundance Film Festival.
March 27 – The Accidental Husband (Yari Film Group)
Uma Thurman stars as a radio talk show host who dishes out relationship advice.
April 8 – Hannah Montana: The Movie (Disney)
The world’s biggest teen star is back on the big screen.
May 1 – Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Warner Bros)
Matthew McConaughey stars as a bachelor who contends with past girlfriends at his brothers wedding. Also starring Jennifer Garner (Catch & Release), Lacey Chabert (Party of Five), Emma Stone (The House Bunny) and pop star Christina Milian.
May 8 – My Life in Ruins (Fox)
Nia Vardallos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) stars in a romantic yarn set in Greece.
May 8 – Wild Child (Universal)
Emma Watson from Nancy Drew and Hotel for Dogs plays a Malibu princess who must adjust when she is sent to boarding school.
June 12 – The Proposal (Disney)
Rom-com starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds.
July 10 - I Love You Beth Cooper (Fox)
Hayden Panettiere (Heroes) shows the nerdy valedictorian of her high school class the night of his life.
Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl on the set of THE UGLY TRUTH
July 31 – The Ugly Truth (Sony) – Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler star as television morning show workers who test their relationship theories (and, just a hunch, fall in love).
August 7 – Julie & Julia (Sony)
Nora Ephron is writer/director of this movie based on a Julia Child memoir and starring Meryl Streep as the famed TV chef.
September 25 – Fame (MGM)
A remake of the 1980 film about a New York High School for the Performing Arts.
November 20 – New Moon (Summit)
The sequel to 2008’s mega-hit Twilight.
2-time Oscar winner Daniel Day Lewis and Penelope Cruz in a scene from NINE
November 25 – Nine (Weinstein)
Chicago director Rob Marshall adapts the Tony Award winning Broadway musical starring Oscar winners Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard and Sophia Loren and Academy Award nominees Penelope Cruz and Kate Hudson.
Untitled Nancy Myers Project – December 25
The writer/director behind such chick flicks as Baby Boom and Something’s Gotta Give is set to star Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin.
Steve Mason is on Facebook and now also on Twitter.
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27 Comments
Soooooo, all of a sudden, sexism isn't a problem anymore???
I'm confused.
I'd like to know when sexism is and when it ain't.
I think the underlying theme is that there aren't a lot of truly entertaining movies to choose from. So anything that grosses a lot of money is considered a chick flick? High School Musical and Miley Cyruses' movies are considered chick flicks? I don't get it.
http://the100mostannoyingthings.blogspot.com/
Yeah, appealing to pre-teen girls does not necessarily make it a chick flick. Please don't include cheesy d*sney Family movies as Chick Flicks.
chick flick = shallow movies for people too shallow to know what's good and what's not?
I've never undertsood the appeal of movies that play like all the gossip women dish. I want some red-blooded action movies like we used to have before Hollywood stopped casting men like men.
Chick Flicks aren't too bad if there are naked chicks in them.
The list of upcoming movies all look like rentals. (I start watching with the wife, then bail after 15 minutes to do something manly like re-loading handgun cartridges.)
It is not a surprise that you would see more and more "chick flicks" these days. For years now, Hollywood has viewed teenage girls as driving the movie going market. They go with their friends to "chick flicks" (which does not include more adult-oriented (read: mature) female-oriented dramas), and they go with their boyfriends to horror movies and blockbusters. Movies that skew largely male or largely older do not have the drawing power in theaters that Hollywood is seeking, so they are rarer or often are dumped off on independent movies.
Also, they seem to have perfected the "chick flick" formula, just like they perfected the male "action flick" formula years ago. So they've become very easy to make, and to make money on. Sadly, for the studio, this formula will weasr thin in a couple of years.
Sadly for the rest of us, it means fewer and fewer good flicks.
If you're a woman who doesn't like Chic Flicks (like myself) this just looks like a parade of movies I will never see.
Let me add, being somewhat of a sentimentalist, I would love to watch a good romantic film. Unfortunately, it's been really hard to find a good one that wasn't made in the 1940s or 50s. Most of what passes for romance now is pure manipulation and formula. In fact, the only good ones I've been able to find are from overseas, though those are often somewhat strange.
The Devil Wears Prada is a good film. I think It will outlast half of the consensus top 10 films of 2006. While it isn't All About Eve, Prada recalls a time when you could make a film starring three or four women, draw rounded characters and examine their relationships while not skimping on entertainment. It's more of a classic woman's picture than what I would call a chick flick.
The rest of those are hit and miss.
As a man who doesn't like formulaic movies, I agree. I also don't like most of what passes for action movies these days. I'd like a movie with a story and some realism in it, not just bigger and bigger explosions.
The only romantic film I *really* like is Pride & Prejudice. I'll even take Keira Knightly in the role. I like to watch the BBC version though because it stays really true to the book. Now that's my idea of romance.
As far as action goes, Dark Knight and Taken were the best of last year. Though I can't lie. Death Race was my guilty pleasure movie. I do like Jason Statham.
I almost never attend current chick flicks either (my all-time favorites are "Casablanca" and "Pride and Prejudice"). But I would like to see a high-quality bio-flick of Aasiya Z. Hassan, the Muslim wife who was just beheaded by her husband in Buffalo, New York. That would be a look into a different world of women I would find fascinating (and very sad).
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/02/14/the-barbaric...
I really liked Pride & Prejudice (the BBC version)! Great movie, great book. I found a Korean romance I really liked called My Sassy Girl (whatever you do, ignore the Hollywoof remake). But I really draw a blank when it comes to modern Hollywood romance films.
I haven't seen Taken yet. I agree on Death Race and Jason Statham, and DK. It's 10 years old now, but my favorite action flick is still Ronin.
I've been watching a lot of SciFi lately because I find that it's got some of the most creative writing (best action, best drama, often the best romance, all combined). BSG is interesting. I am Legend was entertaining (though they lost the cool point to the original movie that the creatures view him as the boogeyman). Some of my older recent favorites are Matrix, Pitch Black, Fifth Element, and Dark City.
BBC Pride and Prejudice is fantastic! My favorite movie is Shop around the Corner (1940). What can I say, if I'm watching something for entertainment, I like to laugh and go away happy, call me shallow.
Rom-coms are – like every kind of movie – mostly bad. However, among the acres of pebbles, there are some pearls. And I collect them. The best? "Soapdish". And then there are "State and Main", "Intolerable Cruelty" , "Miss Congenialty", and "Murphy's Romance." "Legally Blonde" is fun, too.
As to Jane Austen's ouvre, well "Pride and Prejudice", the one with Colin Firth, is completely wonderful. Also, "Persuasion", the one with Amanda Root; and "Northanger Abbey", with JJ Feild…
To keep up my cred in this thread, I will note that I am also a fan of "Death Wish", "Taken" and of course, the best of the best, "Gran Torino."
I looooove "Ronin."
I'm kind of a sci-fi geek. Love BGG. "Iron Man" was another good movie last year. And "Matrix" (only the first one though) was awesome.
I totally *get* shallow. Heavy dramas are too grueling for me. Life is dramatic enough. Give me some entertainment!
That's not shallow. Shallow is something like 27 Dresses (which I watched about a month back). I tried slitting my wrists half way through, but my remote wasn't sharp enough.
That's a huge list of movies that don't look remarkably different from each other at all. And you knew McConaghuey would find his way on there somewhere. Hard to believe the dude was once in Reign of Fire.
hmmm. Matthew McConaghuy?? Where did you find him? Let alone Kate Hudson???
I agree with the poster who laments Hollywood getting the chick flick down to a formulaic science. Also, the poster who ponders how long this is going to last. I didn’t like “Prada,” but it wasn’t bad and I agree with the poster who likened it to being similiar to a more old-fashioned Hollywood pic. I think it’s difficult to find strong characters in big budget Hollywood films, male or female. I guess we just have to be appreciative the few times they grace the screen.
I’m still waiting for an female indie-driven revival ala 1996. That was the year we got Fargo, Secrets & Lies, The English Patient, Breaking the Waves, etc. Lots of interesting female characters whom audiences went to go see.
I love romance novels, and I love classic older romantic movies. I love Jane Austen (Persuasion is my favorite), but chick flicks? No way! The characters are all so immature.
Not a huge deal. But Shopaholic underperformed this weekend. The real deal? Friday the 13th killed. So to speak.
Hi miley..i love your song,start all over..what was your age when that video clip recorded?
I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE YOU Miley.
yes, miley, becauae all moms are ugly and huge and have lost their figures. we all hate our lives, too. that’s right.
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