Sex doesn’t sell in mainstream cinema says study

Posted on December 7, 2009
Filed Under Global, Media, Pornography, Publication, Reseach | Comments Off

According to a new study published in the November journal of Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, sex does not sell mainstream cinema.

If anything, too much hard-core action could actually hurt a film’s performance. On average, the less sex and nudity, the higher the gross. The more sex and nudity, the lower the gross — by approximately 31 per cent.

“All in all, it appears that sex may neither sell nor impress. This null effect might suggest most cinematic sex is in fact gratuitous,” write the authors.

“It is manifest that anyone who argues that sex sells or impresses must be put on notice. At present, no filmmaker should introduce such content under the assumption that it guarantees a big box office, earns critical acclaim, or wins movie awards. On the contrary, other forms of strong film content appear far more potent, either commercially or aesthetically.”

Using box-office, critical response and Motion Picture of Association America ratings as core data, the researchers concluded that current assumptions about the marketing power of nudity and physical objectification are not only impossible to back up empirically, they may also suggest an inherent sexism in the film industry that needs to be addressed.

“Initially, I assumed that more sex would equal higher box office, since everyone said ’sex sells’ and I believed them,” says Cerridwen, who first started her investigation a decade ago after taking acting classes.

“When I first saw the averages, I was really surprised, and mad, too. I felt like I’d been had. Things came up in most of the classes that made me feel very uncomfortable (unwanted touching, sexualized content). Then I looked at the kinds of roles available for women, and that made me even more uncomfortable. So basically, I couldn’t act, even if I could, because of the roles I would be expected to play,” she says.

From there, Cerridwen started crunching numbers, and the initial results seemed counter-intuitive. While we might remember films with strong sexual content, especially if they did well financially, most films with ample sexual content perform worse than films with little or no sexual content. The results were even worse for films containing sexualized violence.

Citing Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution — the Oscar winner’s 2007 feature about a psychologically and sexually sadistic affair during the Second World War — the authors suggest Lee could have cut several minutes of graphic sexual content to earn a more commercial ‘Restricted,’ or MPAA rating, instead of the audience-limiting NC-17 designation.

Teasing out critical merit, audience reaction, box office and awards were part of the statistical process, as the team attempted to see the bigger picture of a “successful” motion picture.

Yet, all things considered, the top 10 films of the 914 sampled — not to mention the top 10 box-office generators of all time (including Gone With the Wind and Star Wars) — reaffirm the “sex does not sell” idea.

Having analyzed the data and lived with it for the past decade, Cerridwen wonders why sex remains such an important part of most scripts.

“It makes you wonder why it’s there at all,” she says.

“I realize that many people think it’s harmless, but I see it as sexual harassment of talent. (I keep thinking, ‘Could I do that? No. It would be too hard.’) It also is often just plain sexist, holding up women (and leading men) as objects to be consumed rather than people,” she says.

“I think it reflects and reinforces sexism in society, in general. Even if the performer genuinely doesn’t mind having to do this stuff as a condition of employment, it creates a hostile environment for the rest of us: other women on camera, behind the camera, in acting classes, plus women, in general.”

http://www.canada.com/entertainment/movie-guide/doesn+sell+mainstream+cinema+study+says/2261483/story.html

Okay, so what does sell? Blood and guts.

“Violence tends to have a positive effect on U.S. and world gross,” Cerridwen writes. So does the inclusion of guns. For some reason, the U.K. seems to be the only one of four regions (U.S., U.K., Asia, World) studied that is “immune”

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/730584–sex-doesn-t-sell-at-the-box-office-study?bn=1

Sex doesn’t sell—nor impress! Content, box office, critics, and awards in mainstream cinema

Article by Cerridwen, Anemone; Simonton, Dean Keith in Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Vol 3(4), Nov 2009, 200-210.

Although it is commonly assumed that “sex sells” in mainstream cinema, recent research indicates a far more ambiguous relation between strong sexual content and financial performance. Moreover, such content may not be justified by either critical evaluations or movie awards. The literature even suggests that cinematic sex may reflect long-term gender biases in the film industry.

The current study investigates these issues by addressing two questions.

First, what is the impact of sex and other graphic content on the central criteria of cinematic success?

Second, to what extent is such content contingent on the proportion of women engaged in filmmaking, whether as producers, directors, writers, or actors?

Analyses of 914 films released between 2001 and 2005 indicated that sex and nudity do not, on the average, boost box office performance, earn critical acclaim, or win major awards. Although female involvement does influence a film’s content, the only impact on the presence of sex and nudity is the proportion of women who make up the cast. Notwithstanding statistical complications, the best conclusion is that graphic sex neither sells nor impresses.

Article available to download from http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/aca/3/4/200/ – NB there is a charge.

See also:
* Crackdown on the ugly face of modelling and entertainment industry
To prevent rogue entertainment and modelling agencies from exploiting people the Government will introduce new rules banning agencies from taking upfront fees from models, background artists, extras and walk-ons.

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