No sex please, it’s a box office turn-off: Hollywood falls out of love with bedroom scenes

By: American Decency Staff

 

There was a time when films stood little chance of success unless there was something steamy going on at some point.

These days, however, it seems movie moguls find sex one big turn-off.

Experts say intimate love scenes have been vanishing from movie scripts in the last 18 months.

 

This is not only because producers want to avoid an adult-only rating, but also because women are increasingly the ones who choose what film to watch when they go to the cinema with their partner.

It marks a huge shift from the days when films deliberately courted controversy with their sex scenes.

 

Among the most famous examples of this were Sharon Stone uncrossing her legs in Basic Instinct and 9½ Weeks, which starred Kim Basinger. Vincent Bruzzese, president of the film division of market research company Ipsos, said sex scenes were now regularly removed from scripts by producers.

The executive, whose company looks at scripts for studios and filmmakers, said: ‘Sex scenes used to be written, no matter the plot, to spice up a trailer. 

'But all that does today is get a film an adult-only rating and lose a younger audience. Today such scenes are written out by producers before they are even shot.’

He told the Sunday Times: ‘They ask: do we really need the sex? Can we fill the space with dazzling special effects instead and keep the family-friendly rating.’ 

It was pointed out how this year’s best picture hopefuls at the Oscars contained a lot of violence but no explicit sex scenes.

 

Among recent films which have featured sex scenes which have failed to win big audiences are The Sessions, which stars Helen Hunt as a sex surrogate, and The Paperboy starring Nicole Kidman as a trashy blonde with a sexual predilection for Death Row prisoners.

Film producers are now desperate to avoid an adult-only rating because young people often drive the box office success of movies.

The trend has also been linked to a report put together for Warner Bros, which suggested that women over 25 are most likely to decide what film a couple watch.

Research also shows the percentage of adult-only films in the UK dropped to 8 per cent last year, as compared with 12 per cent in 2001. Only two films containing sex and nudity made the box office top ten last year.

Adrian Lyne, who directed 9½ Weeks and Fatal Attraction, said these types of film would not be supported today. 

He told Entertainment Weekly: ‘I can’t think of the last relationship piece that was a success… which is apparently why I haven’t done something for quite a while now.’

Hollywood insiders also point out that gratuitous sex scenes are not highly valued by audiences, notably in an era where pornography is easily accessible on the internet.

 

Source (IMAGE WARNING): http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2298342/Hollywood-cuts-steamy-scenes-blockbusters-claiming-moviegoers-prefer-special-effects.html#ixzz2OZXdxU32 
 

 

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