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Do Sex, Horror and Violence Sell Movies?

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Predicting Movie Success at the Box Office

Abstract

Many movies contain depictions of a sexual, violent or horrific nature. These content features have been observed to play prominent parts in movie story-telling from the earliest days of the industry. The amount and intensity of sex and violence can also vary between genres. There is evidence that many cinema-goers enjoy watching scenes of violence and sex. Others do not. In general, however, these elements can add to enjoyment of a movie for many viewers provided they make a good fit within the film and are not inserted for purely gratuitous reasons. Yet, macro-level analyses of box office performance have revealed that while cinema-goers may express positive opinions about sex and violence in movies, such content does not always deliver better performance at the box office.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Media, Communication and Sociology, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Barrie Gunter

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  1. Barrie Gunter
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Gunter, B. (2018). Do Sex, Horror and Violence Sell Movies?. In: Predicting Movie Success at the Box Office. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71803-3_7

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