Is the Problem With 'The Women' or the Chick Flick?

Sept. 16, 2008 — -- Perhaps in politics, it's never been better. But at the theater, the time just isn't right for "The Women."

Coming on the heels of the chick flick's most successful summer ever -- "Sex and the City" kicked it off by bringing in a record-breaking $57 million when it hit theaters in May, "Mamma Mia" followed that with a $27 million opening in July -- "The Women" had a lot to live up to.

Its cast, a who's-who of chick flicks past and present including Meg Ryan, Annette Benning, Jada Pinkett Smith and Eva Mendes, belongs at the top of the box office.

But Diane English's remake of the 1939 comedy about infidelity, divorce and revenge fell over the weekend, limping to fourth place with a $10.1 million opening. So was audiences' affection for the chick flick this year merely a summer fling, or was something wrong with "The Women?"

According to English, figuring how to make money off "The Women," a project that was in development for years before it hit the big screen, was an issue from the beginning.

"We struggled to get this movie made. The financing was really hard to come by because we had an all female cast and we didn't have a television series that preceded us," she said, noting that while "Sex and the City" had a whopping $65 million budget, "The Women" had to make do with $16.5 million.

"The whole reason for making this movie was not only to put women up on the screen, where they often aren't, but also to bring them into the theaters because the conventional wisdom is, women over 25 don't go to the movies," English said. "We really want this to become a trend and not just a fluke."

Beyond just updating a previously told story, upping Hollywood's respect for female-oriented movies seemed be a strong motivation for English in making the film, one echoed by her cast.

"Women in the industry have to start getting behind the scenes and we have to start pushing and finding that talent of women that are out there. We can't expect men to do it. We've got to do it. We have to take more responsibility for getting in the forefront," said Pinkett Smith, who plays the lesbian confidant of Ryan's main character. "Let's make the point that women are marketable, that we can open movies. Then let's diversify."