A recent study published in the Journal of Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts comes to the counter intuitive conclusion that sex does not sell – at least when it comes to mainstream cinema.
Researchers from the University of California, Davis surveyed the box office take of over 900 films from 2001-2005. What they discovered is that the more nudity and sex a movie had, the worse it did at the box office.
31% less – to be precise.
This is no small margin of error. This is clear evidence that mainstream movies that contain less gratuitous sex and nudity actually do MUCH better at the box office.
What about sex in the music industry?
The researchers did not cover the music industry but judging by Adam Lambert’s recent raunchy performance on the American Music Awards, followed by a #4 debut on Apple iTunes, sex is still the currency of choice when it comes to the recording industry.
What do you think? Do you trust the evidence? Does it apply to your movie going habits?
photo credit: borsalino1951
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The evidence as far as movie preference might be accurate. I know I prefer movies without a lot of sex.
However, the sexualization of our youth is still very much a global problem.
Media, celebrities, music and retailers plays a big part in sexualizing not just young girls, but women in general.
Quoting from an article I read: “The average child views over six hours of media per day. Among prime-time television shows popular with children and adolescents, 12% of sexual comments involved sexual objectification, the vast majority directed toward women.”
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I’m totally not sure how true this survey is cos I’m a staunch believer in sex sells BIG TIME! Personally, if the sex ain’t accompanied by quality acting, I ain’t buying.
That also goes for music for me. No amount of sex appeal is going to make me listen to a half baked singer.
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I believe it does target a audience and it does sell. Not saying movies with out it are not worth watching but the movies that don’t do so well at the box office is trying to make up for a lack of quality in some field with some skin. I enjoy all sorts of movies and in those lesser quality films sometimes that is really the only thing worth watching. I work on a boat where we may be out to sea for long periods of time so movies play a big part in my free time. So I watch what I can get my hands on pretty much with an exception of some movies. If you look at the game industry, almost every game has some sort of pixel generated super model with two revolvers, a bad attitude, and a belly button ring. People buy it. If it is just for the babe on the cover or the content I couldn’t tell you, I can only say what I look for when I spend my money and that is usually quality of the material. I am no subject matter expert, this is merely my opinion on it and I think it is effective.
As an author who writes both mainstream romance and erotica, I can tell you that when it comes to books, sex still sells. My erotica book far outsells any others I’ve written. Maybe publishing is different than the movies or music, but it seems that people still want to read about sex, a lot.