The Trouble with Little Girls

By way of the Movie Marketing Blog is this Hollywood Reporter article (separate link) detailing the fickle nature of that moneyed group, tween girls. Seems that with the relative failure of "Raise Your Voice," Hilary Duff's latest starring vehicle, movie marketers have concluded that:

"One of our gut responses to what went wrong is (that) there seems to be a very specific image or identity that any one of these young female stars have and if you sway from that, it could be problematic."

"The young female movies are almost impossible to figure out right now," one studio marketing executive said. "The girls are just rejecting the young female movies. They are a fickle segment of the audience, and it's pretty hard to figure out who is going to go to these movies."

This observation actually hews closely to the portfolio theory of film investment. These tend to be less expensive movies, that if "star" driven are smaller (read: inexpensive) personae, that offer less risk and more reward. If you throw five of these at the screen and one hits, you've profited across the slate.

And for the ubiquitous quadrant quote:

"There is no star who can open any movie," one executive said. "It's always about the concept of the film and if the concept is a good fit for the audience. 'Mean Girls' was smart enough to appeal to a broad audience, and 'Princess' was a pre-established brand. It needs to go beyond the one quadrant. Hitting just 8- to 12-year-olds is not enough."