Pitch Perfect 2: a tentpole picture aimed at women
The terrible figure for female participation in the Australian screen sector is particularly galling because women make up more than half the audience. But what are the implications of this? Can we divide the film world into real dramas with guns and bangs and running around, and lot of other small things for women which have soppy stuff like characters?
These days, the thinking about audiences and demographics is very sophisticated, and age and gender are being seen in complex ways. Beyond the decision to make a particular film, we now have social media marketing plans which entice narrow slices of a possible demographic, and which explore the different ways in which women and men, young and old use the internet.
What is more, we know that the audience is fragmenting. The number of films keeps climbing, and audiences are used to being enticed. Going to the pictures is much less a generic thing, based on very broad appeal. Twenty years ago, a thousand people watched a single film in a cinema; now it consists of many small boxes, each with a small, precisely constituted audience.
Screen Australia ​gives us a glimpse of the complexity by looking at the relative percentages of men and women of various ages in the total audience. Between 18 and 34, the male audience is about 2% higher than the female, so all those action and SF films have almost as many women in their audience as men. Between 35 and 49 it is equal, and after that the figure tips towards women by 4%. More than half the audience, for both men and women, is over 35 so in total women see more films than men.
The result is frightening and chaotic – no wonder that Hollywood relies so much on sequels, franchises and superheroes to reduce risk. The current box office figures are a neat illustration of the forces at play.
Women and ​tentpole films
Any survey of the current weekly box office shows just how much we are dominated by pictures clearly focused on action, often around superheroes. Right now, disaster movie San Andreas has taken $3.22m here in its first week, for a reasonable but not earth-shattering $7,715/screen. Fury Road has made $16.32m in three weeks. The Avengers: Age of Ultron has taken $40m in six weeks and is still going strong. Fast and Furious Seven has only just finished with a $43m swag.​
These are the typical action films that are traditionally assumed to appeal to young men. But these days, the studios have thought long and hard about how to entice young women as well as men, to rely on the sheer appeal of speed and spectacle.
The power of the tentpole films is created by the fact that a lot of people go to very few films. That older audience is spread over many more films so that half the audience is delivering huge profits to a high-cost sector and the other half is helping much cheaper films scrape through. Insofar as female-centred films appeal to an older demographic, they are automatically in that marginalised space.​
However, Hollywood is happily making tentpole movies for their daughters – think of the Twilight franchise, or the fairytale films like Snow White and the Huntsman and Maleficient. They make a lot of money.
Looking back
Historically there are a number of Australian films targeted towards female audiences that have done well. Strictly Ballroom surely fits the category. Released in 1992, it took $21.7m at the domestic box office. It also made US$11.735 in North America. The next major film is probably Muriel’s Wedding. In 1994, it took $15.77m here and US$15.12m in North America.
Then we went to splatsville. Dating the Enemy in 1996 took $2.62m here and was not released in the US. In the same year, Love and Other Catastrophes harvested all of $1.67m here, and US$300,000 in North America. Paperback Hero in 1999 continued the slide with $1.369m and no US release.
However, Baz Luhrman continued to make female friendly films which pulled the numbers here. Romeo + Juliet – $16m, Moulin Rouge – $27.735m, Australia – $37.6m and The Great Gatsby (sort of) $27.4m.
But social media has levelled the playing field. If Love and Other Catastrophes were coming out now, with four unknown performers but with sassiness and star power​ and a good social media campaign, it would fly.
The current crop of female-centred mainstream films
Among current films, Pitch Perfect 2, which has made $25m in a month, shows us that a picture for young women, set in their hermetic world, with no fantasy, violent action or single-handed heroism, can grab an audience on a tentpole scale. With an alleged budget of US$29m, it has taken at least US$230m around the world.
It is perhaps no coincidence that Pitch Perfect 2 comes from a team of primarily female filmmakers. It was directed by Elizabeth Banks, written by Kay Cannon, and produced by Elizabeth Banks with Paul Brooks, Max Handelman, and Jason Moore.
It is also a massive outlier, on which no sane financier would base a policy without studio backing.
Cinderella, the live action remake by Disney, directed by director Kenneth Branagh, and written by Christopher Weitz, with Cate Blanchett taking a rare trip into her mean side, is about a young girl who ends up saved by marriage to the handsome prince. $22.2m in Australia in ten weeks, including school holidays.
Tomorrowland, which has sharply divided reviewers, has girls in it​ but is completely written, directed and produced by men. We would not expect this to do fabulous business here, and it has popped up with a mediocre $1.6m in its first week. Fine for exhibitors.
What about Spy? The film, which riffs on the male superspy genre, is written, directed and co-produced by Paul Feig but it stars Melissa McCarthy, who is by far the central character. As a comedian larger than a size twelve, she diverges from the typical on-screen woman. Spy, which also contains Rose Byrne, has been released here but not in the US. It is currently on number three in the Australian box office, and has taken $7.215m in two weeks. Not in Fury Road’s league, but doing better in terms of box office for a given budget, said to be US$65m..
Hot Pursuit, directed by Anne Fletcher, produced by Australia’s own Bruna Papandrea, with Reece Witherspoon, is a comedy with Sofia Vergera and Reece Witherspoon, allegedly budgeted at US$35m. It has taken US$32.4m in North America, despite horrible reviews. It opens here on June 11.
Arthouse territory
A Royal Night Out is interesting. About the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret who escape on VE night ​for one night of normalcy, it has taken $1.941m here, starting on 340 screens in three weeks. Down to 212 screens now, it is averaging $674/screen – a ghastly wreck which has probably made Paramount regret the decision to go wide. But, in arthouse circles, among the older women I know, it is regarded as a complete if shameful hoot. Take your aged mum, but she might collapse into a blubbering heap about what her father was like when he came home from Changi. Not released yet in the US.
Clearly inclined to a female audience, it has not a single female name amongst the writers, director, producers or heads of department except for the production design categories. It has just one female co-producer.
Testament of Youth, based on Vera Brittain’s memoir about the end of WW1, is another film to appeal to at least an older women’s audience. James Kent directed, Juliette Towhidi wrote, Rosie Alison and David Heyman produced with Celia Duval as co-producer, and Lucia Zucchetti edited. It took $820,000 in Australia.
The Clouds of Sils Maria is intriguing too. Written and directed by Olivier Assayas, produced by Charles Gillibert, run in competition at Cannes, loved by many critics, it stars Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart in a wonderfully meta coil about two actresses and a mystery and a surprise. It is about ageing, while Chanel did the product placement and is an investor as well. It has everything for an older women’s audience, right? It seems to have taken US$1.15m in France, which is a cultural insult. US$1.163m in North America.
After a month in Australia, on 32 screens supported by Pinnacle, it has taken $437,000.
Finding the female audiences
The female audience is powerful, particularly in the older age group, and at least as diverse as any other group.
In the over -35 market there is in fact little designed to appeal to a stereotypical male audience. Older men are left slipping downhill to the action films for a younger, more masculine demographic while films targeted at the over-35s are either Leviathan, or geared towards older women. That helps to account for that 4% difference noticed by Screen Australia. With ​women living longer, staying healthier and more inclined to go out in groups than men, this is a ripe marketplace.
Given the power of the female audience, it probably does help if films appealing to women have a strong creative engagement by women.
There is an argument that the female audience is dangerous because it is flaky. Lower budget non-tentpole pictures sector are in general is less stable and the films which appeal to older – and therefore more female audiences – tend to fit in this category. When did you last see a film which cost over $200m to make which was designed to preference audiences over 35, in the way that many superhero movies are clearly aimed at young men?
One of the few filmmakers who tiptoes up to this point is Baz Luhrman. It is possible that Cinderella and Tomorrowland, both of which admit a female point of view, is part of a trend to open the tentpole space up. When it works, it works.
But human beings are complex, and can’t be divided easily around sexist stereotypes. As producers keep saying, good stories are good stories, and everyone wants to get onto the emotional roller coaster. After all, one of the most beloved female characters of all time is here… Sigourney Weaver in Alien 2.
