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Female-Driven Films Profit, So Why Aren’t More Being Made?

January 26, 2016 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Kaiti Hsu for "Variety"

Kaiti Hsu for “Variety

“It’s good business to cast strong women in lead movie roles. Last summer’s opening weekend was a master class on femi-nomics when “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “Pitch Perfect 2” faced off on May 15 — and both films came out ahead.

“Mad Max: Fury Road,” directed by George Miller, starred Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa, a rebel opposite Tom Hardy’s Max. No distressed damsel, the character with her own story arc was so tough the choice ignited a backlash that the franchise had gone fanatically feminist. As for “Pitch Perfect 2,” the sequel directed by co-star Elizabeth Banks featured Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson and Hailee Steinfeld in a femme-friendly musical comedy.

By the numbers, “Mad Max” cost an estimated $150 million to make. Opening weekend reaped $44 million, with worldwide grosses at $375 million and $153 domestically. Meanwhile, “Pitch Perfect 2” cost an estimated $29 million to make, opened to a $70 million weekend, grossed $285 million worldwide and $183 million domestic. Both films had strong female stars but represented very different genres — and the more female-focused of the two had the better return on investment.

More recently, Emily Blunt proved her box office chops in “Sicario,” in which she stars as an FBI agent who gets a crash course in the drug war, with Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro as her dubious mentors. Lionsgate Entertainment opened the $30 million thriller on Sept. 18 in platform release in six venues with a whopping $65,000 per-theater average.

“The numbers speak for themselves. Period. Worldwide grosses for ‘Pitch Perfect 2’ and ‘Cinderella’ were over $800 million. Clearly women aren’t the only ones going to see these movies,” says Academy member Peggy Rajski, associate arts professor/head of producing, NYU Graduate Film Program.

Looking back in 2015, whether we love or love-to-hate “Fifty Shades of Grey,” the female-directed (Sam Taylor-Johnson), female-led (Dakota Johnson) literary adaptation of the bondage bestseller had a benchmark year. On an estimated $40 million budget, the movie grabbed a worldwide gross of $570 million, with a $94 million opening weekend.

“Fifty Shades of Grey” is a sexy potboiler that could not be more different from “Mad Max,” “Pitch Perfect 2,” “Cinderella” or “Sicario.” In short, the house of female-driven cinema has many, many rooms — most of them as yet unexplored. Meanwhile, two novel-based, female-driven sequels are already in development: “Fifty Shades Darker” is in the script stage and slated for 2017, while “Fifty Shades Freed” has been announced for a 2018 release.

The massive success of “Fifty Shades of Grey” reflects the way in which the movie industry has put bias before good business practices. The book industry has long-known that women are among their most avid readers with the household purchase power behind them. It’s not news that the “Twilight Saga” was an established literary franchise long before it made Kristen Stewart famous and, in four films, grossed over a billion dollars.

“The Hunger Games” trilogy, stretched to four movies, made Jennifer Lawrence a major star by keeping true to the novels’ winning female-driven recipe. With the final installment, “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2” opening on Nov. 20 in time for the Thanksgiving sweep, the franchise has grossed Lionsgate $2.2 billion so far.

Beyond the event movies, female-driven comedies are on the rise. Both Melissa McCarthy’s “Spy” (worldwide $236 million) and Amy Schumer’s “Trainwreck” (worldwide $138 million) were R-rated summer hits. Amy Poehler and Tina Fey hope to capture Christmas with the upcoming “Sisters.”

It comes as no surprise that given the opportunity, female-driven films connect with audiences. Rajski raises the question: “Over half the world’s population is female. Why wouldn’t you target that audience more aggressively?”

The gender gap is bad business: as Oscar winner Meryl Streep pointed out in 2012: “Why? Why? Why? Don’t they want the money?” Her question echoes three years later, begging for a shareholders’ revolt. Female-driven movies make money. In an era when movies are beset by competition from quality television, video games and alternative entertainment, the industry can’t afford to be biased.

{This story first appeared in the October 06, 2015 issue of Variety.)

Filed Under: Movies & TV Tagged With: 50 Shades of Grey, Amy Schumer, Charlize Theron, Elizabeth Banks, Mad Max: Fury Road, Pitch Perfect 2, The Hunger Games, Twilight, Women in Hollywood

Stannis Crosses the Line: Why I Hate TV Recaps

June 11, 2015 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Stannis had a really bad day, or year, or winter or meeting with Harvey Weinstein

S Stannis had a really bad day, or year, or winter or meeting with Harvey Weinstein

Sunday night, minutes after the latest Game of Thrones episode aired on HBO for the first time, there’s Stannis crossing the line being discussed in recaps all over the internet and splashing on FB and Twitter. If you actually went out during the show and didn’t obsessively DVR the thing, you now know what he did. I will not tell you. I won’t. But it has to do with his family, and that red bitch, and fire — and is the stuff of really tortured memoir.

I absolutely hate TV recaps. I mean — didn’t you watch the show? Don’t you have friends to discuss it with? Or a life to discuss with those friends? I love Game of Thrones and, like so many others, I’ve read the books. So, for example, when the Red Wedding arrives do we have to act like it’s as urgent as Putin crossing into the Ukraine atop a tank?

And that more recent wedding night rape brouhaha involving Sansa Stark and that Bolton bastard, I have to wonder: didn’t these women see what that sadist did to turn Theon into Reek? Where was their outrage then. That time that Bolton ate the weenie in front of a flayed and crucified Theon still makes me shiver. Don’t get me started — but at least those articles used the show as a means to air larger social topics — they weren’t recaps per se, which are a Neanderthal form of onine journalism.

The click-baiting obsession makes me want to recap Caillou :Caillou

Caillou and his mother go to the zoo to see the elephants. Caillou has a peanut meant for the baby pachyderm, sulks and goes home for a nap. A minor Caillou, with echoes of Babar. Next time: nap first, then zoo — do not feed the animals.

Or Thomas the Tank Engine: Sir Topham hat has a fit when Thomas and cheeky Percy the Small Engine pull a prank on arrogant but hard-working Gordon the Big Engine. It’s another strike against patriarchal authority for the people’s anthropomorphic hero of the Industrial Revolution.

Thomas the Tank Engine

Or Sesame Street: Guest Kristen Stewart sings the Jackson 5 classic “ABC.” The Count becomes aroused. The Street should stop pandering to YA/Twilight mania and return to its gentler roots. is there a bit of male wish fulfillment here? Is this the Stewart of Clouds of Sils Maria?

 

Filed Under: Movies & TV Tagged With: Caillou, Game of Thrones, Kristen Stewart, Sesame Street, Stannis Baratheon, The Count, Thomas the Tank Engine, Twilight

“Twilight: Breaking Dawn: Part 2” Teaser Trailer

March 27, 2012 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Movies & TV Tagged With: Breaking Dawn: Part 2, Kristen Stewart, Marriage, Robert Pattinson, Twilight

What Your Daughter (and You) Can Learn from “The Hunger Games”

March 26, 2012 By Thelma Leave a Comment

She shoots, she scores: Katniss wins "The Hunger Games"

When my 12-year-old daughter introduced me to The Hunger Games last year, I was immediately hooked. Suzanne Collins’s dystopian trilogy has been a huge bestseller for tweens, teens, and their parents; critics and fans alike are already predicting that the movies will be the next Twilight or Harry Potter. And unlike those two series, at its core is an unapologetically powerful female hero.

Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence of Winter’s Bone), like some futuristic Artemis the Huntress, is a moral and ethical teaching tool on swift, muscular legs. The consequences of the tough decisions she is constantly weighing are often dire. Katniss is drafted by her oppressive government to “entertain” her fellow citizens in a kill-or-be-killed Survivor-style spectacle … starring children. For 16-year-old Katniss, life isn’t a Disney teen chewy of peer pressure and meet-cute crushes. Since her widowed mother (Paula Malcomson) and her sister, Prim (Willow Shields), depend on her for their survival, she can’t afford a shred of narcissism. The movie does have some disturbing violence, it’s true, but it also yields a number of strong lessons for kids — and their parents. Such as …

Sisterhood Sometimes Requires Strength and Sacrifice
Many of Katniss’s finest actions are set into motion to protect her younger sister from pain and hardship. As anyone who has seen the trailer knows — much less avid readers — the Capitol selects fragile youngster Prim to join the other 23 youthful “Tributes” selected for the big televised battle. Katniss immediately volunteers, trading her life for that of her sister. The cost? Potentially death. At best, she’s going to have to kill a lot of strangers to survive.

[Read the rest of this installment of “Thelma Adams on Reel Women” at AMC filmcritic.com]

Filed Under: Books, Essay, Movies & TV Tagged With: Harry Potter, Jennifer Lawrence, Katniss, Mother-daughter, Parenting, The Hunger Games, Twilight, YA

Breaking Twilight news: Clooney on Kendrick

September 14, 2011 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Anna Kendrick, TIFF, Up in the Air,George Clooney,Twilight,Breaking Dawn

Kendrick doesn't bite

 

In the world according to George, Anna Kendrick confided while shooting Up in the Air that her Twilight co-stars didn’t treat her with respect. And then came her star turn in Up in the Air, followed by months in the spotlight and that famous Oscar nominee lunch. Insider much? Oscar-nominee Kristen Stewart or Taylor Lautner? Not yet, at least.  No more mean girls and boys on The Twilight Saga set for this golden girl!

 

Filed Under: Celebrity, Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: Anna Kendrick, Breaking Dawn, George Clooney, Kristen Stewart, Oscar, Taylor Lautner, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Twilight, Up in the Air

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