Sex scenes, in high demand in Hollywood in the past, began to disappear in the past 18 months from the American film scenarios, since they adversely affect movie revenues and producers were leaning toward films that can be watched by the whole family.
“There was a time when films stood little chance of success unless there was something steamy going on at some point,” according to British tabloid Daily Mail. Nowadays, however, it seems that producers and Hollywood studios consider sex as a major impediment to commercial success and was removed lately from the movies.
This is motivated by the fact that producers want to avoid their films to be classified “adult-only”, and the fact that women have become those who pick the movies when going to the cinema with their partners. The new approach represents a major change from the time when Hollywood was intentionally causing controversy with scenes that included sexual content. Some of the most famous examples of that era include hot scenes with Sharon Stone in “Basic Instinct” and Kim Basinger in “Nine 1/2 Weeks”.
Vincente Bruzzese, head of film division at the market research company Ipsos, says that sex scenes are regularly removed from films by the producers. “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.”
This viewpoint could be noted specially this year, when many films in the race for trophies at the Oscars gala included more violence, but not sexually explicit scenes.
The list of recent films that included sexual scenes, but failed at the box office, include feature films such as “The Sessions” in which Helen Hunt plays a therapist specializing in sexual problems, and “The Paperboy” , in which Nicole Kidman plays a blonde creating a huge sexual tension wherever she goes, with a sexual preference for prisoners sentenced to death.
Hollywood producers are trying hard to avoid the “adult-only” classification, as young viewers are often those that ensure the commercial success of a film. This trend was highlighted by a study recently commissioned by Warner Bros.: the results show that women over the age of 25 are the ones that decide what films will be seen when couples go to the cinema.
According to the same study, the percentage of adult-only films dropped to 8% in 2012 and only two films containing scenes of nudity and sexual content have made it into the Top 10 in the UK. Hollywood specialists also believe that free sex scenes are not appreciated by the public, especially now when adult-only videos can be easily accessed online.
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