XX Movies

It's been said that all things being equal, movies aimed at women will do better than movies aimed at men.  The reason is that men are more likely to accompany a woman to a movie, than women are to go with a man.

I wonder if that's always been true?  Perhaps it used to be that couples took a  50/50 approach to the cinema.  Then some guy movie went too far and turned women off.  Okay guys, which one of you blew it for the rest of us?  Stallone, was it you?  Van Damme, I'm looking your direction!

If that's the case, I think we may be about to see the same thing in the other direction.  Movie studios are using this principle as a crutch, unapologetically targeting women with movies no one with a Y chromosome would voluntarily go near.

Lest anyone get offended, I'll point out that I believe good films portray characters with enough realism that viewers will relate to them even if they have nothing in common.  In other words, if your movie can't be appreciated by either gender, then it's not a good movie to begin with.

So I'm glad to see that The Big Wedding had a disappointing debut at the box office over the weekend.  It seems intent to win Dumbed-Down Chick Flick Bingo:

• Slumming, older, talented actors
• good-looking younger actors
• contrived premises that would never happen in real life
• opportunities for everyone to get dressed up
• Katherine Heigl

This may finally be the end for the strategy of unsubtle pandering to women.  Now we can all agree that gender-specific movies are all bad.  And then the studios will make nothing but sequels.