This weekend The Sunday Telegraph noted that, for the past three months, the box office charts in the U.S. have been dominated by the, shall we say, estrogen-infused variety of movies.
It's not because more women are watching more movies, it's because more guys are watching fewer - and in fact, are assumed by Hollywood to be more interested in playing video games. So, more crap blowing up on the small screen = less crap blowing up, more talking about feelings on the big screen. Ergo, Modern Warfare 2 is the reason Twilight's such a big hit. Thanks, Infinity Ward!
OK, seriously. "A lot of young males are spending much more time on the internet, games and UFC [ultimate fighting]," Peter Guber, chairman of Mandalay Pictures production company and former studio chief at Sony Pictures, told The Telegraph. "They have not abandoned movies but they have diminished as a target, while the female audience has remained robust."
The remainder of the story goes on to discuss the disparity in quality (as expressed by favorable reviews) of these films with their relative importance at the box office, and suggests that Hollywood has found a "winning formula apparently by accident." It sounds like another reason this could be a successful angle is because chick flicks, lacking CGI and special effects budgets, are muuuuuch less expensive to make.
'Chick flicks' Back in Fashion as Hollywood Cashes in on Girl Power [The Sunday Telegraph via VE3D]