Director Todd Phillips’ latest film, “The Hangover,” trounced the competition on its opening weekend, taking in more than $45 million at the box office.  That’s a healthy number for a summertime flick that doesn’t have Transformers, Pixar animation, or a superhero in the cast.  From a look at the audience segmentation, part of the success may be due to the fact that 46% of the audience was women.

Warner Brothers’ marketing chief Sue Kroll caught on early that this film, loaded with raunchy “guy humor,” wasn’t your typical throwaway – it had plenty that would resonate with women, too. As the Los Angeles Times recently reported:

Once she realized that the film played with women, Kroll went after them with a vengeance, cutting female-friendly TV spots that played all across the TV spectrum, including such heavily women-oriented shows as “America’s Next Top Model,” “Dollhouse” and “One Tree Hill,” along with the finales of such top network shows as “Lost” and “The Office.”

Kroll knew she hit pay dirt when she went to the hair salon on Saturday. She listened with delight as a pair of women relived the uproarious time they’d had seeing the film with friends the night before. “One of them said, ‘I loved that guy who was missing a tooth — he reminded me of my ex-boyfriend,’ ” Kroll recalled. “And then she said, ‘Everyone loves that movie. My mother’s going to see it now too.’ “

Just another example of how quality in writing, directing, and acting will resonate with women every time.  Too many studios ignore the power of the female movie-going market, or make the mistake of stereotyping what they think women will want according to gender.  Bravo, Sue Kroll.