LA Times on marketing movies for women

Hollywood rethinks chick flicks

By Rachel Abramowitz, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer 

June 11, 2008

...half of Hollywood is trying to parse the lessons of the resounding success (unexpected to some) of the "Sex and the City" movie, the event film for women.

A $57-million opening weekend? And $192 million worldwide within two weeks? Chicks en masse go to the film as a religious experience. Is there a stampede to knock off other hit TV shows, figuring that TV is to women what comic books are to men? A product with pre-established awareness and mythic potential? Or will "SATC's" hitdom be chalked off as a periodic anomaly, just like "First Wives Club," "Fatal Attraction" and, of course, the bestselling movie of all time, "Titanic," whose tidal wave of gross profit was driven by human beings lacking the Y-chromosome.

...... "I hope ['Sex and the City'] will at least bring about more of a trend toward films made specifically for adult female women," says Donna Langley, Universal's president of production, who ran out opening weekend to catch the film, both as a consumer and a professional. "You would hope, given the success of 'Sex and the City,' people will remember there is a huge female audience out there, and, judging by these numbers, they're clearly starved, for the most part.....I hope the film's success encourages not only studios to make more films for women but more female writers and directors to step forward with their own unique voices,' says Langley"

Step forward?  From where to what?  Every woman playwright I know has written at least one screenplay, and would happily write others if given the least encouragement!  As for directors, it's not as if there are women turning down opportunities.