Girls Go Too
For something like 60 years, the Hollywood wisdom was that, on a date, the girl picks the movie. That changed in the past decade or so, in part because there were so few films aimed as women, or even couples; the romantic drama, a leading staple of movies, virtually disappeared, even with the evidence that Titanic, the all-time top-grossing picture, got most of its repeat business from females touched by a star-crossed romance. Not until the waning years of the decade did gal-oriented movies break through, and then they were based on phenomenal hits from TV (Sex and the City), the musical stage (Mamma Mia!) and pop lit (The Twilight Saga). One 2009 smash, The Blind Side, found a canny mix of testosterone and estrogen: have a strong woman turn a lost young man into a football star. That concoction gave Sandra Bullock the biggest hit of her career, and suggested there was just a little hope for women on-screen — and actresses of a certain age.