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Apparently sex doesn't sell after all
You can laugh about it. Fantasize about it. Be punished or killed for it. But what you can't do is take sex seriously at the movies.
Look at the numbers on sexy movies. The list of boxoffice casualties is long. Both versions of 鈥淟olita鈥� died at the boxoffice, along with 鈥淪triptease,鈥� 鈥淪howgirls,鈥� 鈥淗enry and June,鈥� 鈥淐rash,鈥� 鈥淭he Brown Bunny,鈥� 鈥淭he People vs. Larry Flynt,鈥� 鈥淐rimes of Passion,鈥� 鈥淲onderland鈥� 鈥渁nd 鈥淥riginal Sin.鈥� Boosted by raves, the 1998 porn-world flick 鈥淏oogie Nights鈥� topped out at $26 million. Even when Warner Bros. Pictures sold 鈥淓yes Wide Shut鈥� as a groundbreaking sex event movie starring Tom Cruise and his then-wife Nicole Kidman, audiences blinked. 鈥淧eople get itchy about straightforward sexuality,鈥� Universal Pictures publicity executive Michael Moses says. The old adage 鈥渟ex sells鈥� no longer applies to the movies. 鈥淪ex will not make something that is otherwise not entertaining sell,鈥� producer Tom Pollock says. 鈥淢ovies work because they make you laugh, cry or (be) scared. Audiences won鈥檛 go to a movie because of sex.鈥� Most recently, even with a substantial boost from a studio marketing campaign, the NC-17-rated documentary 鈥淚nside Deep Throat,鈥� which entertainingly tells the back story of the notorious 1972 porn film, failed to break out of the docu ghetto. Its gross to date is just $500,000. One reason for audiences鈥� lack of curiosity about the famous blue movie: Porn, from soft to hard, is readily available in every home, hotel and video store. Two to 鈥楾ango鈥� Compare the performance of Bernardo Bertolucci鈥檚 鈥淟ast Tango in Paris,鈥� which scored $36 million in North America three decades ago, with the filmmaker鈥檚 recent 鈥淭he Dreamers.鈥� Less well reviewed than 鈥淭ango,鈥� 鈥淒reamers鈥濃�� portrait of a youthful romantic triangle in 1960s Paris boasted the first NC-17 rating in six years. And it scraped up just $2.5 million. But not even great reviews and a robust Oscar campaign helped 鈥淐loser.鈥� Even with such marquee names as director Mike Nichols and Julia Roberts, the sexy R-rated relationship movie grossed just $36 million. 鈥淜insey鈥� also grabbed great reviews and should have titillated audiences with its R-rated depiction of the notorious sex researcher and his team鈥檚 experiments with group sex, but it underperformed despite the best efforts of Fox Searchlight, which rarely misses the marketing mark. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of joking about sex,鈥� says writer-director Bill Condon, 鈥渂ut the actual idea of talking about sex makes a lot of people nervous, no question.鈥� As any theater owner will eagerly tell you, American audiences like their movies PG and PG-13, not R, and certainly not NC-17. At the recent ShoWest convention, National Association of Theatre Owners president John Fithian urged Hollywood to give theater owners more PG-rated hits and a lot fewer R-rated losers. Last year, five of the top-10-grossing movies were PG. Of the top 25, only four were rated R. 鈥淚ncreasingly, if a movie is rated R,鈥� says producer John Goldwyn, 鈥渁udiences won鈥檛 go.鈥� Outside of the sophisticated urban art-house milieu, most American moviegoers just don鈥檛 want much sex in their movies. According to studio marketers, it tends to make them (especially men) uncomfortable. 鈥淚f you spell sex in marketing materials, it doesn鈥檛 sell,鈥� producer Peter Guber says. 鈥淚f you spell fun, it sells. Sex inside a comedy candy-coats sex and allows the audience to feel comfortable. Laughter covers up insecurity. Sex sells, but not serious sex. Films can be sexy, but they can鈥檛 portray the sexual intimacy most people crave. In the movies, you have to have safe sex palatable to a younger audience. The portrayal has to be violent or funny.鈥� Sex without emotion Which is why vulgar, dumb, funny sex plays in such movies as 鈥淭here鈥檚 Something About Mary,鈥� 鈥淎merican Pie鈥� and 鈥淩oad Trip.鈥� 鈥淲hen they鈥檙e flinging around in a wet T-shirt contest in 鈥極ld School,鈥� it鈥檚 fine,鈥� DreamWorks marketing chief Terry Press says, 鈥渂ecause no emotion is attached to it.鈥� Sex also plays well within the thriller genre. For whatever reason, director Adrian Lyne repeatedly has scored in this arena, with 鈥淔atal Attraction,鈥� 鈥�9 1/2 Weeks,鈥� 鈥淚ndecent Proposal鈥� and 鈥淯nfaithful.鈥� So did Ellen Barkin and Al Pacino in 鈥淪ea of Love,鈥� Barkin and Dennis Quaid in 鈥淭he Big Easy,鈥� Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone in 鈥淏asic Instinct,鈥� Russell Crowe and Kim Basinger in 鈥淟.A. Confidential鈥� and William Hurt and Kathleen Turner in 鈥淏ody Heat.鈥� But they鈥檙e not making movies like that anymore. Why? These days, sex is in the home. In the privacy of your own room, you can see all the racy material you want in 鈥淪ex and the City,鈥� 鈥淭he L Word,鈥� 鈥淨ueer as Folk,鈥� 鈥淒eadwood鈥� and 鈥淒esperate Housewives.鈥� 鈥淭oday鈥檚 audiences aren鈥檛 comfortable being seen in a mass-audience public place like a cinema complex seeing something that is inevitably notorious because of its sex,鈥� producer Bill Horberg writes in an e-mail. 鈥淚f you go to a complex, you might run into your kids, much less neighbors, co-workers.鈥� Kids' stuff Besides, the studios are no longer in the business of making movies for adults. It鈥檚 easier to sell movies to the sweet 13-28 demo who pour into theaters on opening weekends. Make a movie that鈥檚 rated R, and teens under 17 can鈥檛 get in alone, so it means a smaller potential audience. Filmmakers are routinely asked to trim their sexier material to avoid the dreaded R. In order to get a PG-13 for 鈥淴XX,鈥� for example, Rob Cohen took out the sexier elements, which he then restored in the upcoming DVD release. 鈥淚f the sex is really hot, you get an R rating,鈥� DreamWorks鈥� Press says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a harder road.鈥� In the 鈥�70s, American movies were full of sexual encounters: 鈥淒on鈥檛 Look Now,鈥� 鈥淭he Graduate,鈥� 鈥淜lute,鈥� 鈥淢idnight Cowboy,鈥� 鈥淐arnal Knowledge.鈥� It鈥檚 hard to imagine even a studio subsidiary greenlighting those movies now. We鈥檙e not far away from a time when movie lovers who want to see dramas dealing with relationships between consenting adults will order sexy classics like 鈥淲omen in Love鈥� or new direct-to-DVD dramas for grown-ups from Netflix, Movielink or their cable company. 鈥淲e are a Puritan society,鈥� Press says. 鈥淲e鈥檇 rather watch it at home.鈥�
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