Each weekend, the Hollywood box-office tally hands every movie its own official report card: This one passed with flying colors! That one failed! This one squeaked by!
Along with that, there’s the demographic breakdown of who actually went to see what, which is sort of the report-card equivalent of how your teacher would characterize you (“Jason works well, but spends too much time in the back of the class fiddling with his PlayStation”). Almost inevitably, we’re informed that the audience for a sci-fi action blockbuster is dominated by “young males,” that women go to chick flicks (duh!), or that end-of-the-year prestige movies draw audiences made up primarily of people who are not teenagers. A lot of this conventional wisdom is true. But not all of it. There’s something about the way that it’s reported (i.e., with a broad brush, and none too scientifically) that pigeonholes films, reinforcing stereotypes as much as it actually reflects the disparate groups of people who may, in fact, end up going to see the same movie.
Take, for instance, Julie & Julia. It had a very solid opening weekend, and this morning, on the Variety website, I read the following “analysis” of who purchased those $20 million worth of tickets: “Older women bypassed G.I. Joe and flocked to Sony’s Meryl Streep-Amy Adams starrer Julie & Julia.”
Older women! All those blue-haired garden party and bridge club ladies! Man, I’m sure glad I didn’t get stuck in a theater with them!
I have no doubt that any number of “older women” (How old? Over 50? Over 40?) did indeed go to see Julie & Julia. But what percentage of the audience were they? And leaving aside the issue of age, is this really a movie that drew an audience of women…but not men?
The reason I ask is that the American food revolution of the last 20 years or so (the celebrity chefs, the mainstreaming of organic-food culture, the joyful juggernaut of appetite that is the Food Network) has hardly been an exclusionary female thing. Quite the contrary, the essence of it is that figures like Emeril Lagasse — who worships Julia Child — and Mario Batali have allowed men, as never before, to give in to their inner high-end gastronomic pleasure-seeker. It’s men, to a great degree, who sit around and watch happy-tastebud competition shows like Throwdown With Bobby Flay. So why wouldn’t they want to go see Julie & Julia?
Let’s conduct a little unscientific survey of our own. How many guys out there went to see Julie & Julia? Or now think that they want to see it? Is it really just a chick flick? Or does a description like that one sell the movie — and a lot of moviegoers — short?
Comments (1-15) of 84 Add your comment
I didn’t see it, but I want to.
I am a sixteen-year-old male and I went to see Meryl Streep on opening day, because she’s the best. And I think the term “chick flick” greatly lowers people’s expectations. In turn, writers and directors and producers who turn out chick flicks create lower quality films to match those expectations and expectations are lowered again. Now, by this definition, I’d say that Julie & Julia is better than a typical chick flick, and I’d like to thank Nora Ephron for creating rom-coms and other such fare that is better than the low expectations of the current film-going population. But I wouldn’t be so surprised if you told me that more men showed up to see Julie & Julia than, say, 27 Dresses or He’s Just Not That Into You.
Kudos for mentioning Nora Ephron, a co-workers boyfriend was happy to hear my review(i thoroughly enjoyed the film)and was very confident he would like it knowing it was an Ephron film,he seemed almost as excited by her work as he is to see a glimpse into the making of Julia Child.
I’m also a teenage male (17 instead of 16), and though I did take my girlfriend to Julie & Julia on the opening day, it was my suggestion, not hers. We enjoyed it basically equally, with me maybe enjoying it the smallest bit more. It’s not about it being a chick flick, which I just don’t think it is. Chick flicks don’t usually deliver such Oscar-worthy performances as the one from Meryl Streep (yes, I know Something’s Gotta Give, Four Weddings and a Funeral, and even Streep’s own The Devil Wears Prada contradict this, but then again I’d argue that none of those movies are your ordinary chick flick). My theater certainly skewed female, but they were a fun bunch to see a movie with, laughing heartily at everything, even harder at the stuff any ordinary old bitty would consider “vulgar”. I can certainly say, though, that every young male I saw go into my local theater was going to see The Hurt Locker, Julie & Julia, or The Proposal. Not one saw G.I. Joe.
My hubby does not want to see G.I. Joe. Its not the top of my list but if he did, I’d go. Both of us want to see Julia and Julia and will probably catch it this week. We saw The Hurt Locker instead (figuring that would not be around our area as long).
As a young woman, I am sick of being told, “Oh, you’re a girl, you’ll like this movie.” It’s an absolutely absurd concept. I have a film collection numbering nearly 300 discs/titles and less than 15 qualify as “chick flicks.” I love a GOOD (please note that adjective) action flick, would have been at Comic Con if I had something resembling money but would have fled as fast as possible from the Twilight panels. I try to see as many Oscar movies as I can each year, but sometimes, frat humor is exactly what I’m looking for. I also know I am not in a minority in this. Studios have to stop telling people what they should like based on gender/age/etc. and make consistent QUALITY films. If you present an audience with something of high quality, they will come. I saw Julie & Julia yesterday and found it highly enjoyable, not because I am a woman, but because I am someone who likes both quality film and quality food.
I totally agree with your comments Laura, including the Comiccon and Twilight ones.
Oh yeah, and we’re both in our early 40s. I personally never go to most chick flicks – especially the romances – unless I’m with my girlfriends who want to see it. I’ll go then just for their company. But I find every single one of them stupid. That said, I’ll probably catch 500 Days of Summer b/c I like Joseph Gordon Levitt and it does not seem like your average stupid romantic comedy.
Let me help you out Owen, I went to a 10am Sat showing.The theater was about half full on a rainy morning predominantly occupied by married couples 30 and above.There were several lone males,(regulars of the early bird showings,actually)all above 40. Talk @ work(in a restaurant)has all my male co-workers eager to see this w/ their female counterparts.There seems to be enough appeal for guys to want to see it w/ the women in their lives whether it be mom,wife, or friend.
I want to go see it. My wife was suprised but I heard about the book first but never got around to reading it so I will see the movie and then read it. I like both actresses.
I loved the book,and was happy that they managed to squeeze much of Powell’s experience into the film,I am finding many people not in the know think that part of the film is fiction,there was even an unfavorable review over the weekend complaining about the Julie parts detracting from Julia’s,too bad critic didn’t do their homewrok.Luckily i steered my boss in the right direction on the matter having seen the film that morning.Now i think i will go back and read the book again,just for aspic if nothing else.
My Wife & I saw it Saturday. I enjoyed it. My final impression; it was primarily a movie about doing something interesting with your life. The food aspect was secondary to the “moral to the story”. It worked, I felt inspired to work on some of my life goals.
I’m a 40 year old male, and I went to see it on Saturday late afternoon, I worked-out, went in to the office for a bit, then shopped for an hour and then decided to unwind to a nice movie before heading home, and it was a perfect movie to do so, the options were slim, but who doesn’t like a Meryl Streep movie!
Though I saw this with my whole family, I must admit that the average age in the theater I was in was about 66. It was male and female and a considerable older crowd. I was expecting this group and I was a little confused to what the studio was thinking when the previews consisted of the new Tyler Perry movie and Fame…
i really really want to see it
20 year old guy. My guys friends and I want to see Julie and Julia much more than our girl friends who want to see the Ugly Truth.
Thank you for this. I keep seeing reviews of Julie & Julia that basically boil down to “wow, movies about women can be interesting and appealing to both genders, ye gods!” For the record, I’m a 19 year old girl, but I know at least two older men and one younger that are raring to see this film.
(48 yr old male)I went to see it with my wife on Sunday afternoon. I mentioned to her that I appeared to be the only male in the audience under 50. She searched and found one other. That said, it was an enoyable movie esp. Meryl Streep’s performance. I would say that Ratatouille seemed to have more of a love for food than this movie though. I felt that this movie was more about finding a passion in your life and pursuing it (as both Julie and Julia did in the movie).
Movie ended with the man sitting behind me saying,”I never cry at movies and just look at me”. His wife handed him a hanky. Everyone enjoyed the film.