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The color of one of my iPhone covers is candy pink. My cycling shoes are white with hot pink laces. My favorite reading glasses are raspberry, bedazzled with sparklies.
I love videos of kittens and puppies and other adorable animals. And babies send me over the moon – can’t get enough of them.
But if you’re a film producer and think I’m your target for The Time Traveler’s Wife, you, my friend, are screwed.
My favorite cable TV program is Dexter. I revel in the battle scenes of Braveheart, especially when blood spatters on the camera lens. My all-time #1 choice for Broadway musical is Sweeney Todd. And the moment a Quentin Tarantino movie opens, I get myself to the cinema as soon as humanly possible.
Hollywood has been trapped into the Rule of Resemblance for eons. But the Weinstein brothers are busting the “myth of the female moviegoer” wide open with Inglourious Basterds.
Today’s Los Angeles Times reports that Weinstein Company co-chairman Harvey Weinstein is giving credit to women for the phenomenal, $65 million opening weekend of “Inglourious Basterds.” 42% of the audience was female. And I don’t care if you do have Brad Pitt in the film – he doesn’t exactly look like his usual hunk-and-a-half, and this is a war movie, for God’s sake (well, sort of).
The Weinstein Company had the vision (and cojones) to realize that there are a large number of women out there who love a good story and great filmmaking. Ads for the film were placed in women’s magazines, websites, and TV shows like “Project Runway.” It paid off big time and will only grow from here. With an opening like that, you can count on a runaway success when the DVD is released.
A few film studios are getting it. This box office bonanza, just like the one with The Hangover in recent month, proves that many women are looking for more than fantasy and romance. It’s an untapped gold mine that applies across all industries. You just have to know how to talk to women in a language that resonates with them and gets them up and out the door to do business with you.
By the way – if you haven’t seen Death Proof, Tarantino’s last film, go rent it. It’s one of Kurt Russell’s finest roles (he’s one mutha of a bad guy), and the best “chick revenge” flick ever, complete with a jaw-dropping car chase between black and white 1970 Dodge Challengers.
Boo-yah!
Michele Miller is a writer, speaker, and consultant on ways to capture the heart of the female customer. The co-author of The Soccer Mom Myth, she consults with businesses of all sizes across North America
Excellent! Of course, plenty are going to say Pitt is great bait to get the XXSO to go see bing, bang, boom. I buy the appeal to inner Boadicea but would love more of what you think the magic mix is that makes this and the other flix you mention so viscerally (hah!) appealing? Good story sure, but what dynamic/resonance? Is Kreuger’s role a meaty one?
I haven’t seen any you mention but any film with a 1970 Challenger in it can’t be bad – one of the first flicks I saw with my older bro was Vanishing Point with Barry Sullivan. Now there’s a brain spelunker’s seminar.
You’re right, Mark. I need to elaborate. Let me ruminate on this – look for a future blog post!
By the way, rented “Vanishing Point” about 3 weeks ago. Did you know that car was the inspiration for “Death Proof?” (You probably did). The ending is a brain-bender.
It is counter contextual. We’ve be conditioned to think incorrectly because we’ve been showered with years of dumb marketing.
The movie was crisp and funny and interesting and filled with women. It’s been along time since I heard a sold out show clap at the end, men and women.
Cheers.
You’re so right, Ken. People – most of all, marketing industry execs – have had their intuition and curiosity trained right out of them. So much so that they can’t look beyond “what’s traditionally been done” to see the real opportunity right in front of them. I’m hoping that if Hollywood wakes up, maybe a few more industries will as well.
I am a die hard sci-fi fan, a die hard horror fan, and love a good adventure thrown in there with some nice looking hunk! I love movies that portray women as strong individuals who kick butts and don’t care about names. I also love a good story – no matter the genre, delivery method or quality.
My husband, on the other hand likes gangs, reality shows, a good fast moving story and suspense. (He doesn’t know that he likes sci-fi because I’ll turn him on to a show and he’ll complain that it’s cancelled or on some network that doesn’t have HD.)
Most of my female and male friends exhibit the same kinds of likes that I do and watch the same kinds of films I do. Some are more into chick flicks and some more into the hunky flicks.
I have found that Joss Whedon will give us strong women characters and most anything Gina Torres plays will be a strong character no matter how hokey or campy the genre/media is. Women are not looking for some hunk that can come save them from the house work, they are looking for some hunk they can stand beside and wield a sword or knife or 87 million caliber shotgun!
I do think that the Hollywood machine has overlooked women as a demographic that likes more than “sappy chick flicks”. They have been stuck in that old mentality.
However that mentality is working on my children and their friends (preteens/teens between 10-14).
“Twilight” is all the rage but I’d rather be watching “Being Human” on BBC. Sorta the same concept but without the sappiness.
“Young vampire loves a human” has been done…to death!
But start out with: “A vampire off the sauce, a socially awkward werewolf and a ghost share a flat (apartment) and try to fit in with the rest of the humans….”
The latter is a much better story. The viewer is never sure if it’s all going to work out in the end and it can be tense, exhilarating and make you want to go out and kick some butt along with them.
That’s the real reason I watch movies/TV… What will the residual feelings be? What message do I want my children (yeah four of them) to learn or internalize? Will it be good cinema/TV or will it just be a disjointed story where I really couldn’t see the progression. Did or will my husband fall asleep watching it! LOL
Okay that last isn’t true in the sense that I ask myself this but he does fall asleep in quite a few movies.
I want to be entertained, as do all of my girlfriends. I want animal magnetism, sexuality (doesn’t have to have sex but a butt shot is well received), action, blood and guts, a good pace (yeah and maybe even fast paced!) humor, a believable hero and a believable bad guy and irony. You can’t get that in a chick flick. I want a Bruce Willis/Vin Diesel kind of character! Not Hugh Grant on Valium!
What a great comment, Kavelina. And pretty funny, too! You are the perfect example of why Hollywood needs to sit up and pay attention to female movie goers. We all love great stories, told in a compelling manner, no matter what the medium. To limit the perception of women as all being lovers of “chick flicks” is narrow minded. Thank goodness some studios are seeing the light!