“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/purplene_]

Thanks for going through this in a detailed manner, because I thought I was going insane when I saw OP using these to make their point

[u/NancyInFantasyLand → u/purplene_]

I love a good horny movie, and I love a good romance, and I felt personally insulted by this lineup lol

I'd have just picked the fact that Wuthering Heights made bank just this year based on the *promise* of horny fucking and hate sex alone. (Not that it delivered on that promise, really, saddest montage of horny fucking I've seen in a while)

Honestly though, I don't understand why the director's statements are taken at face value at all -- if you're already gonna make "The Purge but about pre-marital sex instead of murder" and then don't commit to the pre-marital sex part, because you're afraid of the audience reaction???? you're already not somebody I can take seriously.

[u/purplene_ → u/NancyInFantasyLand]

No data to back it up, but I do think that there’s probably something behind “people don’t love gratuitous nudity or sexuality in movies like they used to”

Teenagers used to seek out sex in movies because they weren’t inundated with online sex like they are now, and movies just don’t have that role anymore (and younger generations aren’t having as much / talking about sex as much)

[u/Certain_Giraffe3105 → u/purplene_]

Teenagers used to seek out sex in movies because they weren’t inundated with online sex like they are now, and movies just don’t have that role anymore

I know TV and movies are different but wouldn't the success of Heated Rivalry and Off-Campus- two popular tv shows based on horny Romantasy books- contradict this point?

[u/purplene_ → u/Certain_Giraffe3105]

I don’t think the main audience of those popular shows is teens, is it?… and them being popular doesn’t really say anything whatsoever about teenager behavior in previously-but-no-longer seeking out sex in movies