Javier Bardem and Julia Roberts star in 'Eat Pray Love.'
People love to complain about what precious little fare Hollywood offers women.
Dorothy Pomerantz drills down on that issue in her new Forbes article, "The Trouble With Chick Flicks." The issue isn't Hollywood misogyny, she says. It's men.
Women will happily go see a big action movie, like this weekend's "The Expendables," which a poll shows will have a female audience of about 40%.
But ask men to go see a chick flick and most will run. Also opening this weekend is "Eat Pray Love" starring Julia Roberts. About 95% of expected ticket buyers are women.
The upshot is a leading box office analyst expects "The Expendables" to net about $35 million at the box office this weekend, while "Eat Pray Love" will do only about $20 million.
So even though chick flicks can deliver big wads of cash to studios— think "Mamma Mia," which reaped $610 million globally— the potential generally will never be as big. "From a purely capitalist point of view, making movies for women actually means studios are cutting out half of the audience," Pomerantz writes.
To even the playing field, maybe women should quit going to see those big action flicks.
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