<p>The study, which compiled data from more than 900 films released between 2001 and 2005, concluded that sex and nudity did not ensure a big box office return or extra media attention, the CNN reported online.<br /><br />Dean Keith Simonton, co-author of the study titled ‘Sex Doesn’t Sell — nor Impress! Content, Box Office, Critics, and Awards in Mainstream Cinema’, asserts that the study was based on the largest body of work used for film research.<br /><br />“Sex did not sell, whether in the domestic or International box office. Even among ‘R’ movies, less graphic sex is better,” Simonton, a professor of psychology at the University of California, said.<br /><br />The top-grossing films in the study included ‘Shrek 2’, ‘Spider-Man’, ‘Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’, which feature minimal or no nudity.<br /><br />The study actually took a cue by something experienced a few years back by another co-author, Anemone Cerridwen who had been taking acting classes and became increasingly uncomfortable with some of the sexualised content she was encountering.<br />This led her to pursue data about why sex is such a big thing in the world of showbiz.<br />“I assumed sex sold, and wanted to know by how much, I braced myself for the worst, and got quite surprise,” Cerridwen said.<br /><br />Craig Detweiler, director of the Centre for Entertainment, Media and Culture at the Pepperdine University, said the study’s findings reflect the culture’s post-sexual revolution sensibilities.<br /><br />“Nothing is as shocking anymore, you can see it in Britney Spears’ kiss with Madonna and Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl performance. Things that were a big controversy among some, the next generation kind of yawned at them,” Craig said.<br /><br />The authors of the study now want their work to have some direct impact on moviemaking.<br /><br />“I do believe that there are a fair number of people in the film industry who want to make better films, and this study may give them some ammunition,” Carridwen said.<br /><br />“I know that Hollywood has been trying to make more family-friendly films for a while (since the ‘90s) and it seems to be helping ticket sales, so my guess is that this research would complement that,” she added. <br /></p>
<p>The study, which compiled data from more than 900 films released between 2001 and 2005, concluded that sex and nudity did not ensure a big box office return or extra media attention, the CNN reported online.<br /><br />Dean Keith Simonton, co-author of the study titled ‘Sex Doesn’t Sell — nor Impress! Content, Box Office, Critics, and Awards in Mainstream Cinema’, asserts that the study was based on the largest body of work used for film research.<br /><br />“Sex did not sell, whether in the domestic or International box office. Even among ‘R’ movies, less graphic sex is better,” Simonton, a professor of psychology at the University of California, said.<br /><br />The top-grossing films in the study included ‘Shrek 2’, ‘Spider-Man’, ‘Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’, which feature minimal or no nudity.<br /><br />The study actually took a cue by something experienced a few years back by another co-author, Anemone Cerridwen who had been taking acting classes and became increasingly uncomfortable with some of the sexualised content she was encountering.<br />This led her to pursue data about why sex is such a big thing in the world of showbiz.<br />“I assumed sex sold, and wanted to know by how much, I braced myself for the worst, and got quite surprise,” Cerridwen said.<br /><br />Craig Detweiler, director of the Centre for Entertainment, Media and Culture at the Pepperdine University, said the study’s findings reflect the culture’s post-sexual revolution sensibilities.<br /><br />“Nothing is as shocking anymore, you can see it in Britney Spears’ kiss with Madonna and Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl performance. Things that were a big controversy among some, the next generation kind of yawned at them,” Craig said.<br /><br />The authors of the study now want their work to have some direct impact on moviemaking.<br /><br />“I do believe that there are a fair number of people in the film industry who want to make better films, and this study may give them some ammunition,” Carridwen said.<br /><br />“I know that Hollywood has been trying to make more family-friendly films for a while (since the ‘90s) and it seems to be helping ticket sales, so my guess is that this research would complement that,” she added. <br /></p>