‘Bridesmaids’ Effect: Why Female Comedies Are Making Comeback
Producer David Friendly (Courage Under Fire, Big Momma’s House, Little Miss Sunshine) writes a piece in THR about the success of Bridesmaids and provides some excellent insight into how people think in Hollywood. Some excerpts:
It might have been the funniest “walk of shame” moment in cinematic history: Kristen Wiig in Bridesmaids, climbing over that 8-foot gate after a night of meaningless sex with hunky Jon Hamm. As far as metaphors go, it might represent the watershed moment when female-centric comedy broke down the Hollywood gates. On May 16, the Monday morning after Bridesmaids opened to an unexpected $26.2 million, with an audience that was 67 percent female, you could hear the edict bellowed at studio staff meetings everywhere: “Where’s our Bridesmaids?!”
All producers share two common chromosomes embedded in our DNA: opportunism (O) and self-preservation (SP). After double-checking the numbers that Monday, I instinctively began reviewing my development slate. One never wants to be too reactive, but there are few door-openers like a box-office winner.
Wiig, her Bridesmaids writing partner Annie Mumolo, Tina Fey, writers including Elizabeth Meriwether (No Strings Attached) and a host of other talented and funny women are suddenly the toast of the town. Their names are showing up more often on rewrite lists. Their spec scripts, once relegated to a desk drawer, are being dusted off. And, for the moment, the powers that be, the people who actually greenlight movies, have decided that — guess what? — women are funny even when disgusting!
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If the Bridesmaids Effect really takes hold, imagine the possibilities. There’s the comedy about the bachelorette party gone horribly wrong. There’s the nightmare honeymoon from the woman’s perspective. The Bridesmaids Effect allows entire genres to be reimagined. Chicks on horses. Women in space. Time-shifting gals.
So back to the aforementioned (O) and (SP). In an effort to ride the Bridesmaids mo’, over here at Friendly Films we started thinking about one of our projects in development. Why couldn’t the protagonist and friends be women? It would freshen up this reboot, and we could call upon one of these talented and funny screenwriting women who have emerged like Jeremy Renner in an action movie. Now we are combing the town and asking for meetings with women screenwriters who will transform this in an organic way.
One ripple effect of this kind of change is that it creates new relationships. Shortly afterBridesmaids opened, Allison Gibson (The Trophy Wife), a talented screenwriter I’m working with now, urged me to read a New Yorker profile on Anna Faris. It was a complex look at one of the best comedians in our business, and we both thought she’d be great for our script. Within that story, Faris’ writing partner Deanna Kizis was mentioned briefly. I was curious, so I called her agent and asked to read a sample. The script was delightful. A smart and funny femme fatale? Check. Sometimes racy and sometimes raunchy but always clever dialogue? Check. Castable? Check.
Loved it. Meeting her next week.
There it is again. The Bridesmaids Effect.
SP = Self-Preservation. O = Opportunism. There’s always that push-pull in Hollywood development circles. The push to get something made, the pull away based on fear: What if it sucks? What if it flops?
So when a movie gets released and it’s a hit at the box office, you naturally see Hollywood producers and studios trolling for projects which mimic the same narrative attributes of that current hit movie.
In Hollywood, where as William Goldman declares “Nobody knows anything,” this represents about as close to ‘safe’ thinking as possible.
I know there are screenwriters who track what sells, then come up with similar concepts in the same genre, and prep a spec so that when the selling project gets produced, then released, racking up big B.O., they have a script ready to go to market.
Of course, if there are dozens or even hundreds of other writers working the same angle, there could be a flood of similarly themed scripts hitting the spec market at the same time.
Perhaps a bigger lesson is this: Look for areas in the marketplace that are being underserved, then write the hell out of a high-concept genre-piece for that target demo. Whether Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo consciously did that with Bridesmaids or not — “Hey, let’s write a raunchy R-rated comedy targeting women!” — in effect that’s what happened. As a result, one more piece of Hollywood conventional wisdom gets shot down: “Women won’t go see an R-rated comedy starring women.”
And at least for the time being, all you women writers out there, Hollywood has some heat for you. Hopefully we can get more movies starring women, written by women, directed by women, and aimed at women, if nothing else to balance out the testosterone levels at the box office.
For more of Friendly’s article, go here.