it's interesting how we have such a clear idea that women must obviously like x genre of media, and men must like y genre. i mean, the sociological explanation is pretty simple, and it makes sense that it'd be that way, but it's strange how strongly the films industry sticks to those archetypes. i think there's a better explanation here than just "well women like this and men like that," but i do think it's probably correct that woman-targeting films probably have a hard time reaching a broad male audience, and vice-versa. that being said, i somewhat suspect this is mostly down to marketing and poor writing. a good story should be able to theoretically reach a broad audience regardless, so maybe film writers are just playing into niches they've carved out for themselves by marketing movies, either in the present or the past, so strongly to a specific gender. i think that trend is fading more and more though, and a lot of media is appearing that actually proves that it's not so hard to create a compelling piece of writing with a heterogeneous cast if you aren't afraid to break away from the safety of the archetypes and tropes people have gotten used to. it's an interesting thing to think about tho, we gender movies just like how we gender toys and clothes
I believe a lot of it has to do with corporate bureaucracy and getting a movie green-lit for funding. I know that at least in my experience, sitting down to watch movies with other guys, we have not once watched a movie that would be more traditionally targeted at women. I think a lot of it boils down to what men want from a movie vs what women want.
Men tend to like brainless entertainment- look at football, action movies, FPS games, etc. Men like to see stuff get forgeted up and don't care much for the plot provided it isn't incredibly stupid. Even then, it may still be a good movie depending on how it's marketed.
Women care more for plot development, I'd think. Anecdotally, my ex and her friends loved the movie Titanic and they watched it at least once every month together. I don't have the patience to sit through such a long movie, nor do I really care about the plot as much as they did. The most "plot intensive" movie I'd watch by choice would have to be one of the James Bond movies- they have enough action to stop me from getting bored and a plot that ties everything together nicely, in most cases (we don't talk about Moonraker).
tl;dr IMO guys like violence and explosions and dont really care about plot, women care about the plot but usually don't trend towards violent movies.
