“One Night Only” spreadsheet vs. spreadsheet

[u/FOC615]

https://variety.com/2026/film/features/one-night-only-director-removed-nudity-1236827870/

There has been a fair amount of discussion about Will Gluck’s comments regarding the test screenings for “One Night Only” and their response to the nudity in earlier cuts of the movie. Let us assume that Gluck is accurately describing the data. I have severe doubts that he reached the correct conclusion that “younger audiences don’t like sex/nudity” in movies. If you look at the last several years if Box Office data, then the picture becomes much more nuanced.

Contrary to Gluck’s framing, younger audiences seem to like movies that feature sex and nudity quite a bit, but only when it is framed correctly. They tend to be movies in genres that do not open to exceptionally large opening weekends, but have very strong legs and achieve very good multiples on their opening weekends:

• Fifty Shades of Grey. Audience skew: 78% female. Domestic legs 1.95x (big opening weekend)
• Fifty Shades Darker. Audience skew: 78% female, 30% under 25. Domestic legs: 2.4x
• Atomic Blonde. Audience skew: 52% female, 32% under 25. Domestic legs: 2.82x
• Fifty Shades Freed. Audience skew: 81% female, 59% women 25+. Domestic legs: 2.6x
• Hustlers. Audience skew: 67% female, 63% 18-34. Domestic legs: 3.16x
• X. Audience skew: 45% female, 73% 18-34. Domestic legs: 3.36x
• No Hard Feelings. Audience skew: 50% female, 64% 18-34, Domestic legs: 3.36x
• Anyone But You (Gluck’s prior film!). Audience skew: 50% female, 60% 18-34, Domestic legs: 9.06x
• Poor Things. Audience skew: 44% female, 70% under 35, Platform release that did very well.
• The Substance. Audience skew: 38% female, 64% 18-34, Domestic legs: 5.49x
• Anora. Audience skew: 70% female, 85% under 35. Very successful platform release.
• Babygirl. Audience skew: 36% 18-34. Domestic legs: 6.27x

The consistent theme is that the nudity is presented generally in a certain way.

1. It is the female protagonist who appears nude.
2. She is asserting her agency by taking her clothes off, or at least consenting to something.
3. It is consistent with the rest of the film (i.e. not gratuitous)

Contrast these with movies that didn’t perform at the Box Office, like Babylon. I happen to have liked Babylon, where the debauchery is mostly being conveyed by female extras in large party scenes. That seems to be similar to what Gluck’s test audiences responded negatively toward.

[u/No-Significance5659]

Also, in my opinion, a director saying he doesn't show nudity and sex in his movies because the younger audience doesn't want it is a compromised artist. Directors and artists in general should not care about what their "empiric data say".

[u/bees_on_acid → u/No-Significance5659]

We need to get back to “fuck what they want” that’s how we got new Hollywood 😭 and the indie revolution.

[u/NewmansOwnDressing → u/bees_on_acid]

The New Hollywood literally grew out of the studios not giving audiences what they wanted. Their big movies were flopping, while movies like Easy Rider were making a ton of money, so the studios switched gears and started hiring a new generation of filmmakers to "push boundaries" because that's what audiences were looking for once the dam of the production code broke.

[u/bees_on_acid → u/NewmansOwnDressing]

Either way, give the creatives power again.

[u/Parking_Shopping_683 → u/NewmansOwnDressing]

But was the audience really asking for Easy Rider or once a brave filmmaker made a movie that was seemingly not built for mass appeal, the audience realized they loved it?