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Today In Obvious

Meryl Streep, You Raise a Valid Question: “Doesn’t Hollywood Want Women’s Money?”

by Jamie Frevele | 12:28 pm, June 15th, 2012


As we know, there is a dearth of women working behind the scenes in Hollywood, even if we have seen a slight improvement since the 1990s. But when I say “improvement,” don’t get too excited. Using the numbers from the LA Times, women working high-level jobs in non-acting jobs in film — directors, producers, etc. — accounted for 18 percent of the whole lot, up from 17 percent 14 years ago. “Improvement” over the course of 14 years amounts to one percent. In politics, that’s within the margin of error, so it might not even be that accurate. This means less movies that are geared directly to women. And now, one of the women who usually appears in front of the camera, Meryl Streep, is using all that attention we pay to her to ask a very important question: “Why? Why? Why? Don’t they want the money?”

Streep is referring, of course, to Hollywood not wanting to make bucketloads of money on movies that are geared towards women and, instead, spending tons and tons and tons of money on big-budget action flicks to which audiences may or may not respond. ::coughcoughJohnCarterBattleshipcoughcough:: Speaking at Women in Film’s 2012 Crystal and Lucy Awards, she said that five movies that were specifically tailored for a female audience — Mamma Mia, The Devil Wears Prada, The Iron Lady, The Help, and Bridesmaids (the former three of which starred Streep) — made the American film industry $1.6 billion in the last five years. That’s a lot of money! True, The Avengers brought in that much money in less than a month. But that was not just a movie that adult males could see, but clearly appealed to women and was appropriate for kids. So, not a fair comparison. The movies cited by Streep, however, were more modestly produced, had much smaller budgets, and yet made huge profits (relatively speaking) — all while being grown-up movies that targeted women without being treacly rom-coms.

And that’s why this incredibly celebrated women is asking the industry that made her a success “Why? Why? Why” don’t they want to make movies like this for such a large part of the human population? We’re, like, half the people out there! And as much as we love a good action flick, it’s even better to see a movie with a great story about female characters who have something interesting to show us (and are not on a mission to fall in love with a guy).

If there is a lesson that any of those movies Streep mentioned taught us, it’s that we have good stories to tell. Equally as interesting as the boys do. And it’s time Hollywood took a good look at itself in the mirror and said, “I want to make movies for the largest audience possible — not half of the largest audience possible. And if I’m making five movies for one half of the largest audience possible, I should make five more for the other half, because they also have money. Money for my movies.”

(via LA Times)

Previously in Women in Film

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  • Anonymous

    ”
    If there is a lesson that any of those movies Streep mentioned taught us, it’s that we have good stories to tell. Equally as interesting as the boys do.”

    It sucks so much that that’s something women have to prove, like we aren’t people or something.

  • Anonymous

    So why doesn’t Streep just do something about it. Surely with her clout and money, she could fund small projects with women writers and directors and get product out there.

  • fiona st

    If you look at the top 10 box office hits, it’s mostly a certain genre that always works to cater to most audiences. That’s the reason production houses follow a formula that’ll bring them more money. Movies meryl mentioned are good and brought in money but production houses aren’t confident enough to promote those kinds of films, they would rather stick to the safe formula. So, they don’t mind female led movies as long as its fantasy, sci-fi, superhero, cheesy rom-coms etc… The success of Devil Wears Prada proves that you don’t need to stick to typical genre for female led films but’s those kinds of movies are few and far between. Moreover, studios will never leave their comfort zone so it’s going to take a while before meryl’s statement makes any impact.

  • Anonymous

    You’re forgetting about Nicholas Sparks. If he stopped writing, half the women I know would stop reading or going to the movies. God, I hate him.

  • http://twitter.com/Mia_says_what Mia R.

     Ugh, I can’t stand any of his writing or his movies. It’s so deplorably cheesy.
    Why can’t more women try to branch beyond the “society-approved” entertainment options for us? Then, maybe studios and culture would stop being so narrow minded. (One would hope.)

  • Anonymous

    Sparks has never written a book where the conflict wasn’t cancer- it’s extraordinary.
    We clearly need more women (or men, let’s be fair) in the industry who recognize that we’re all not drippy balls of hormones.

  • fiona st

    Meryl is only criticizing production houses who waste enormous amount of money on movies that don’t bring out an actress’ talent and that has little plot/characterization. Small projects are what meryl has been working for most of her career and actresses that want a good movie to showcase their talent are drawn to small projects. She’s just saying promote more movies that had huge box office success with small budget instead of wasting it on certain movies that didn’t work as far as an actress’ skill are concerned. 

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/5ZXIEGCAFZ4F7LBI6QTTN3YJCY Ashe

    “The reason we don’t is because…because, um…because women. And gays. And brown people. Yeah! Because that!”

    Literally the only thing I can imagine going through the heads of Hollywood bigwigs.

  • Barbara Gordan

     LOL! Shh, they don’t want their secrets to get out. Besides, everyone knows that it’s also “Because…um…periods! And hormones. Crazy hormones. Women have those, right?”

  • Anonymous

    The industry is amoral, the people are not. It would be easy to say that it is the fault of society as a whole, but it would be more accurate to say that it starts at the family. Society only accommodates the kind of thinking that causes this. Going back, society is a reflection of individuals produced by the family.

    You could apply this thinking to almost any social issue.

  • Anonymous

    “Clearly Meryl Streep was on her period when she said this, so her opinion doesn’t matter.

    What’s menopause? Isn’t that like a permanent period?”

  • Anonymous

    I would love more woman-starring movies that aren’t chick-flicks. I feel like I hardly ever see a film with a top-billing actress and a compelling narrative, and it grates on me. Films like The Avengers feels a breath of fresh air just for having a woman who has a visible impact on the over arching story besides being a love interest- give me more of that!

  • http://twitter.com/Super_Widget Joanna

    Baby steps.

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