Sex Doesn't Sell?
What? A new study of more than 900 films released between 2001 and 2005 revealed that movies featuring overt sexuality and/or nudity suffered adverse box-office effects, particularly in the international marketplace. "I have yet to see a way of crunching the numbers where sex/nudity has a positive relationship with box office, even controlling for MPAA rating or budget," said one of the co-authors, who studied net and gross receipts from the US, UK and the world as a whole. The report also gets into such topics as female coercion and the cost-efficiency of sex scenes. It probably won't make you want to see the lesbian romps of Chloe or Black Swan any less, but there you have it. [Miller-McCune]
Comments
Sponsored by the Family Research Council.
I think the novelty from on screen nudity has been lost because it's no longer a "new" or even particularly "daring" thing anymore, and it has to compete against all the hardcore sexing happening on the interwebs.
Research actually conducted by a disgruntled acting student, without funding. Nice try, though.