"It's Complicated": a man's film in a woman's world
| a counter-programing move by Universal Pictures to offer older audiences their own comedy, among "Avatar" and "Sherlock Holmes" and other flicks aimed at younger fans.
Meyers, who turned 60 years-old this month, has made a very good living in notoriously male-dominated Hollywood by telling mostly female-oriented stories, starting with 1980 hit "Private Benjamin," about a woman (Goldie Hawn) who joins the Army. While women have had some success breaking Hollywood's glass ceiling in television -- see Oprah Winfrey and executives like Nancy Tellem of US TV network CBS -- there has been less of that in the arena for big-budget, studio flicks dominated by action-adventure and comic book films like "Spider-Man." "The indie world has become so big, it allowed studios to make less-thoughtful movies, and that is where women have broken through...women gravitate toward that world," she said. What breeds success at the studio level are box office hits, Meyers' said, and her comedies have enjoyed plenty. "What Women Want" generated $374 million worldwide, and "Something's Gotta Give" raked in $314 million. While her most recent "The Holiday," only had $63 million in the U.S., another $141 million was collected from theaters internationally. Why? They weren't only about women; they were about women and men. "What Women Want" had its key character (Mel Gibson) getting in touch with his feminine side, and "Something's Gotta Give" showed an old skirt chaser (Jack Nicholson) turning his eye toward an older woman after years of chasing young gals. Note to major Hollywood studios: not all men are that shallow -- not all, anyway. (Agencies) |