Do chick-flick fans dare hope that the tide of guns, honor and big-ass boats is ebbing?
By Rebecca Traister Dec. 16, 2003 | It may be one of life’s smaller upsets, but something remarkable happened at movie theaters this weekend. “Something’s Gotta Give,” the romantic comedy written and directed by Nancy Meyers (“What Women Want”) and starring 57-year-old Diane Keaton as a divorced mom who gets it on with both Keanu Reeves and Jack Nicholson, made more money than the Tom Cruise’s expedition into Japanese warfare, “The Last Samurai.” “This is really good news for the much maligned upper-female quadrant,” said Lynda Obst, the Paramount producer behind “Sleepless in Seattle” and last year’s “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.” She explains that the “upper-female quadrant” is a film-industry term for adult women, usually considered to be “the hardest audience to convert from interest to ticket buyer, so therefore the hardest to make movies for.” This challenge is part of the reason that the “chick flick,” née “women’s picture” — becomes increasingly imperiled with every passing y
