So... Why is there no Big budget-Hollywood yaoi-movie?

[Lieju]

So, I was thinking about Warm bodies and other recent movies that try to attract the Twilight-demographic, and wondering what would be next.

So, why not yaoi/shounen-ai/boys love movie? (I know yaoi is also used to refer to hardcore stuff, but I'm talking about something that has about as much sexual content as Twilight)

Now, this is not about whether they should make one, but rather why cynical Hollywood executives hadn't gone 'What do tween-girls like? There's a lot of yaoi on the Internet, I guess they like that. Let's make a movie with pretty boys falling in love'.

Or is there one? If there is, I haven't noticed it.

Are they afraid of controversy? But wouldn't controversy and being all 'we stand for gay rights!' also be helpful?

Are they afraid that a movie with a boy-couple would get rated so high they'd miss a lot of their target audience?

Or what?

 

[Daystar Clarion]

They already did that, it's called Brokeback Mountain.

Besides, I'm guessing only a small minority of teen girls (or boys, whatever), are into yaoi, and I doubt Hollywood is ready to make a movie about 2 'pretty boys' in love, aimed at teenage girls.

The flames would be intense.

 

[Lieju]

They already did that, it's called Brokeback Mountain.

Besides, I'm guessing only a small minority of teen girls (or boys, whatever), are into yaoi, and I doubt Hollywood is ready to make a movie about 2 'pretty boys' in love, aimed at teenage girls.

The flames would be intense.

Was Brokeback mountain trying to appeal to specifically girls, though? Or even women?

 

[Psykoma]

Now, this is not about whether they should make one, but rather why cynical Hollywood executives hadn't gone 'What do tween-girls like? There's a lot of yaoi on the Internet, I guess they like that. Let's make a movie with pretty boys falling in love'.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but your argument is that if there's a lot of something on the internet, tween girls like it?

 

[Vegosiux]

They already did that, it's called Brokeback Mountain.

One day I will figure from whence you derive your powers of being the first one to any thread that I want to say exactly the same thing in as you. And then there will be blood. Or at least a power struggle. Or even more likely, a long and arduous process to determine how to divide the threads among ourselves.

But assuming the "targetted specifically at teen girls who want some boy on boy action[/i]", I suppose because big budget kind of tries to go for the lowest common denominator, same as with games. Specific-interest, specific-audience things are niche, not mainstream, because they don't have much of a potential for the return of your investment.

 

[Sanat]

I think you've just asked the most retarded question I've come to see in a while. Yaoi is not, in any noticeable way, accepted in western culture. Hollywood execs would be mildly disturbed at best, if they had even come across yaoi and other various boy-love themes, let alone even consider making a blockbuster movie focused at a mainstream demographic on the subject.

TL;DR: Borderline "taboo" internet subculture will not make it into the mainstream western film industry. [sub]Any time soon.[/sub]

 

[Lieju]

Now, this is not about whether they should make one, but rather why cynical Hollywood executives hadn't gone 'What do tween-girls like? There's a lot of yaoi on the Internet, I guess they like that. Let's make a movie with pretty boys falling in love'.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but your argument is that if there's a lot of something on the internet, tween girls like it?

Or rather, that the Hollywood-executives would think so.

I mean, movies like Warm bodies get greenlit because people can point to Twilight and say :"This is popular, our product is similar, therefore it will make money"

I think you've just asked the most retarded question I've come to see in a while. Yaoi is not, in any noticeable way, accepted in western culture. Hollywood execs would be mildly disturbed at best, if they had even come across yaoi and other various boy-love themes, let alone even consider making a blockbuster movie focused at a mainstream demographic on the subject.

TL;DR: Borderline "taboo" internet subculture will not make it into the mainstream western film industry. [sub]Any time soon.[/sub]

Really? I probably have kinda skewed image of how acceptable it's to like yaoi. I see tween girls talking on busstops how gay-guys are 'cute', and such.

 

[Tom_green_day]

I don't really understand what 'yaoi' is, even by your description. However if what you mean is 2 males, what about I Love You Phillip Morris? That's the only film I can think of right now about gay relationships. If you mean teens... I don't think that's at all a large trend or very popular as a topic. No-one really cares either way about it.

 

[Loop Stricken]

So, I was thinking about Warm bodies and other recent movies that try to attract the Twilight-demographic, and wondering what would be next.

So, why not yaoi/shounen-ai/boys love movie? (I know yaoi is also used to refer to hardcore stuff, but I'm talking about something that has about as much sexual content as Twilight)

Now, this is not about whether they should make one, but rather why cynical Hollywood executives hadn't gone 'What do tween-girls like? There's a lot of yaoi on the Internet, I guess they like that. Let's make a movie with pretty boys falling in love'.

Or is there one? If there is, I haven't noticed it.

Are they afraid of controversy? But wouldn't controversy and being all 'we stand for gay rights!' also be helpful?

Are they afraid that a movie with a boy-couple would get rated so high they'd miss a lot of their target audience?

Or what?

Because most people like lesbian sex but not many like gay sex? Statistically proven. Probably.

 

[Weaver]

Wouldn't it have to be animated to be yaoi? It would just be a movie about a gay relationship or just gay porn at that point depending on what type of yaoi you're reading.

The same as trying to make a hollywood movie that's ecchi or yuri; those terms just don't exist over here in relation to things that aren't manga or anime.

Also, keep in mind these things are basically 95% manga and doujin in Japan because they're pretty much devoid of any actual plot to make any sort of feature length movie or TV show about, or at least that anyone would want to care. Unless you're counting the hentai industry with really shitty OVAs, then I guess?

 

[Hazy992]

Because there's very little demand for big budget Hollywood yaoi movies.

 

[MetalMagpie]

Now, this is not about whether they should make one, but rather why cynical Hollywood executives hadn't gone 'What do tween-girls like? There's a lot of yaoi on the Internet, I guess they like that. Let's make a movie with pretty boys falling in love'.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but your argument is that if there's a lot of something on the internet, tween girls like it?

Or rather, that the Hollywood-executives would think so.

I mean, movies like Warm bodies get greenlit because people can point to Twilight and say :"This is popular, our product is similar, therefore it will make money"

They can point to Twilight because that's an existing book (and film) franchise which has gained massive popularity and generated staggering numbers of sales. There isn't anything like that they can point to with yaoi.

If Hollywood executives were to take internet popularity as evidence of probable sales, they would be most likely to look for what's popular with the Facebook crowd, as they represent by far the largest online "community" of women and teenage girls. I wasn't aware that yaoi had become big enough to be a Facebook phenomenon.

On the other hand... Bets on a Farmville film? Actually, I may be behind the times. What's the most popular thing on Facebook right now?

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

They already did that, it's called Brokeback Mountain.

Um no.

Have you seen Brokeback Mountain? It's a movie about being in the closet. It is also very boring in a "this is a serious movie" sort of way. I thought "Boys Don't Cry" did a better job of conveying the message without being "Oscar Bait" dull.

Edit: The point being that it isn't even remotely similar to Yaoi. I realized reading after the fact that I didn't exactly make that clear. Yaoi works very hard on sexually arousing young women, while Brokeback Mountain has no interest in sexually arousing anyone - it's an art film about how much being gay in the deep south west sucks.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

I think you've just asked the most retarded question I've come to see in a while. Yaoi is not, in any noticeable way, accepted in western culture. Hollywood execs would be mildly disturbed at best, if they had even come across yaoi and other various boy-love themes, let alone even consider making a blockbuster movie focused at a mainstream demographic on the subject.

TL;DR: Borderline "taboo" internet subculture will not make it into the mainstream western film industry. [sub]Any time soon.[/sub]

>implying that twilight isn't disturbing

 

[thejackyl]

You try marketing a movie that's about 2 young males trying to get their bone on, and see the reception you get.

Though they're making a 50 Shades of Gray movie(from what I've heard), so maybe all the execs need is a explosively popular Yaoi novel to provoke them into making one.

 

[CriticalMiss]

Probably because there wouldn't be a large enough audience for it and too many people (read: Christians) would be violently opposed to anything more than two men holding hands in case it turned their blessed little ones in to Graham Norton. Hollywood wouldn't make enough money, so it would be relegated to the more independent movie scene. I know there are plenty of non-porn lesbian films so there must be just as many gay ones, just not on the same budget scale as any of the Hollywood blockbusters. I doubt that will really change either and really I'm not all that bothered. I don't think the film industry is actively stopping any 'yaoi' type films from being made, they just aren't super popular enough to warrant spending a huge amount of money on the production.

 

[bananafishtoday]

They already did that, it's called Brokeback Mountain.

Besides, I'm guessing only a small minority of teen girls (or boys, whatever), are into yaoi, and I doubt Hollywood is ready to make a movie about 2 'pretty boys' in love, aimed at teenage girls.

The flames would be intense.

Was Brokeback mountain trying to appeal to specifically girls, though? Or even women?

I'd say its key target demographic was middle-aged women. It was a fairly formulaic romantic drama in the mold of The Notebook or Titanic.

For reference, Brokeback Mountain made $180m on a $14m budget.

OT: It would be incredibly controversial but incredibly profitable. Forget the "yaoi" descriptor--anime in general is an internet subculture. A paint-by-numbers PG-13 teen romance about two guys who looked like Edward and the wolf dude from Twilight having heartfelt bonding moments and rain-drenched tearful arguments and shirtless makeout sessions would break the fucking bank, no question.

The problem, I think, is the fear on studios' parts that the enormous public backlash could possibly destroy their entire brand. But if they rode it out, there's no doubt in my mind that for a $5m budget, they could gross $300m+.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

They already did that, it's called Brokeback Mountain.

Um no.

Have you seen Brokeback Mountain? It's a movie about being in the closet. It is also very boring in a "this is a serious movie" sort of way. I thought "Boys Don't Cry" did a better job of conveying the message without being "Oscar Bait" dull.

Edit: The point being that it isn't even remotely similar to Yaoi. I realized reading after the fact that I didn't exactly make that clear. Yaoi works very hard on sexually arousing young women, while Brokeback Mountain has no interest in sexually arousing anyone - it's an art film about how much being gay in the deep south west sucks.

Gee, really, I didn't know that ¬_¬


Please, do tell me more things I already know.

The point I was making, was Brokeback Mountain is about as close as Hollywood is gonna get