Chick flicks have existed since the early days of cinema and since the dawn of Hollywood it has been recognized by many other colloquial terms, but mainly "women's pictures". It has always been known as any film that is directed mainly to the female audiences.
It is known the earlier motion pictures where more dramatic and tragic such as ‘Gone With The Wind’ compared to the more upbeat and optimistic in nature films like ‘Wildchild’. The 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's, is commonly known as one of the 'classic' films from the golden age of cinema, and is sometimes considered as an early chick flick due to common elements such as dealing with loneliness, romance, and happy endings.
Recognising the advantages of attracting female viewers to the films, Hollywood began to produce tragic love stories based on a formula of ‘boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy loses girl and finds her again in time for the credits to roll’. Despite being extremely predictable and not very original these movies tended to do very well at the box office. I think chick flicks have now evolved into more materialistic and lifelike but with a hint of fairy-tale such as ‘The Cinderella Story’ which still plays the boy meet girl structure but with more real-life bases to it.
Chick flicks used to be identified as films targeted at mainly women but I think they have become specific in there genre to now a more complex view. Romantic comedies may have been perceived as a chick flick back in the day. As I have said before Hollywood began to produce tragic love stories and they were though as chick flicks, but now they could be known as romantic comedies. More recently there are some specific differences between romantic comedies and chick flicks. For example romantic comedies are more to do with a storyline about love and romance with a hint of humour, and chick flicks are more to do with an easy storyline to follow with more materialism less about the romantic plot for example ‘The Devil Wears Prada’.
Many people may have noticed that today’s chick flick differs from earlier movies aimed at a female audience. The formulaic romances gave way to more intelligent romantic comedies, and the chick flicks explored difficult and complex subjects - ranging from a simple analysis of why the leading lady is with her current partner, to more difficult existential questions of the meaning of life, and the characters’ place in it.
Chick flicks have been around since films came to light and they’re here to stay because women and girls such as ME love to cry, to laugh and to be thrilled with the antics and adventures of other women and plots on the big screen.
