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DISCUSS (6)

What?!? Sex Doesn’t Sell

Posted by majestic on December 29, 2009

Not when it comes to movies, anyway, according to this report at CNN:

When it comes to movies, it may be that sex doesn’t sell.

A recent study concluded that nudity and explicit sex scenes don’t translate to success for major motion pictures.

“Sex Doesn’t Sell — nor Impress! Content, Box Office, Critics, and Awards in Mainstream Cinema” examined more than 900 films released between 2001 and 2005.

The study found that, contrary to popular belief, sex and nudity failed to positively affect a film’s popularity among viewers or critics and did not guarantee big box office receipts.

One of the study’s co-authors, Dean Keith Simonton, said theirs was the largest sample of its kind used for film research. The results surprised him, he said.

“Sex did not sell, whether in the domestic or international box office, and even after controlling for MPAA rating,” said Simonton, who is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis. “In other words, even among R movies, less graphic sex is better.”

The top-grossing films in the study included movies like “Shrek 2;” “Spider-Man;” “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” all of which contained mostly minor to mild sex and/or nudity…

[continues at CNN]

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  • Belcat

    Sex doesn't sell – on it's own. But try to make a movie without sexy actors and actresses, and sell it – it will be a much harder sell. The truth is what someone considers sexy isn't sexy to someone else, so if you base your film only on that, it will have limited appeal.

  • tonyviner

    No amount of nudity would have made me watch Transformers 2 after seeing the abortion that was the first one. I don't care how “hot” Megan Fox is, with her stupid, slutty Marilyn Monroe tattoo. I will take Salma Hayek over her any day of the week. Still, though, I wouldn't have watched Transformers 2 even with Salma Hayek naked through the whole thing.

    In general I am just sick of every movie that comes to the theater being a complete failure, maybe not in terms of box office performance but in terms of quality. These movies all suck and so do the focus groups that they bring in to make sure they sell. Make a movie from your fucking heart and stop giving a shit what other people think, the quality will be greatly improved if you make it for yourself and not your little focus groups. This is sickening.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/PDDVWRQVUPMKRGHURIEQVNYWHQ Sean

    in an age with free porn on demand in most households it's gonna take more than some tits to get people to slap down a ticket price

  • GoodDoktorBad

    Sex sold more on film when other sources of sexy material were less available and more taboo. Now “the market” is saturated with T and A.
    At one time it was more exciting to toss one off to “Barbarella” or some Rachel Welch
    flick than all the highly accessable and graphic porn available now.
    Instant gratification has its pitfalls..

  • justagirl

    i hate watching fake sex. first, you have some bimbo with her mouth wide open – yipping and cooing while the man is performing some jerking hip thrust. LOL! just thinking about it is totally hysterical. it’s hard to keep a straight face when i have to watch this sort of thing with someone else. like, if i laugh i’m immature or prude. i want to hide under a blanket until it’s over. then again i’m justagirl.
    i prefer the classic movies where there is some female nudity and kissing and the lights fade out. romantic.

  • justagirl

    i hate watching fake sex. first, you have some bimbo with her mouth wide open – yipping and cooing while the man is performing some jerking hip thrust. LOL! just thinking about it is totally hysterical. it's hard to keep a straight face when i have to watch this sort of thing with someone else. like, if i laugh i'm immature or prude. i want to hide under a blanket until it's over. then again i'm justagirl.
    i prefer the classic movies where there is some female nudity and kissing and the lights fade out. romantic.