Zendaya, dressed in a skin-tight dress, twirls on a dance floor in “Challengers,” a $56 million sports drama that hit multiplexes on Friday. “It’s hot in here,” the hip-hop soundtrack intones, as she closes her eyes and runs her hands through her hair, lost in fantasy. “So take off all your clothes.”
The story continues at a motel, where Zendaya, playing a tennis prodigy, begins a ménage à trois with two boys; he fades away after they become more interested in each other. The plot continues: in a sensual interaction on the hood of a car, in a bedroom, in the back seat of a car, on the wooden slats of a sauna. There is erotic churro eating.
“Sex is back!” shouted an apparently elated man at the conclusion of a pre-release screening of “Challengers” in West Hollywood, California, this month.
Detecting trends in cinema is a dangerous task. Think about how many times the romantic comedy has been declared dead, alive, dead. (No, wait, I live.) But this much can be said for sure: Hollywood is hornier than it has been in years.
“It absolutely feels like the pendulum has swung back toward filmmakers exploring adult relationships and sexuality in their projects,” said Amy Pascal, former president of Sony Pictures and producer behind “Challengers.”
“I welcome you,” he added.
Eroticism used to be common in studio films like “Challengers,” released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. “Body Heat,” “Basic Instinct,” “An Officer and a Gentleman,” “Fatal Attraction,” “Revelation,” “Cruel Intentions” and “Eyes Wide Shut” are among the many examples from the 1980s and 1990s. .
However, in the 2000s, film companies began to focus obsessively on PG-13 franchises and animation, genres that could be screened for a global audience and sell merchandise. The studios also wanted to expand to China, where censors do not allow sex scenes. As a result, gripping storytelling began to decline on the big screen (except in arthouses). Premium television took over.
Sex in mainstream movies “all but disappeared” in 2019, as Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post’s chief film critic, wrote in a column that year. A few months later, Kate Hagen, writing in Playboy magazine, found that only about 1.2 percent of movies released between 2010 and 2020 contained an overt sex scene, the lowest total for the decade since the 1990s. 1960s. (Peaked in the 1990s. Coincidentally or not, that was the decade pornography became available online.)
Now, some filmmakers are fighting back.
Awards season brought “Saltburn,” with its exciting, disturbing bathtub scene and Barry Keoghan’s twisty, frontal finale. “Poor Things” found an insatiable Emma Stone frolicking in a Paris brothel. Christopher Nolan filmed the first sex scenes of his 35-year career for “Oppenheimer.” (“More interested in the pleasures of sex than any recent season I can remember,” as The New York Times awards columnist Kyle Buchanan described the crop of contenders in February.)
Over the past year, the trickle of R-rated sex comedies in theaters has become a relative torrent. “Anyone but You” found Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell facing off. “No Hard Feelings” starred Jennifer Lawrence as some kind of prostitute on a mission to deflower an uncomfortable student. The libidinous “Bottoms,” “Back on the Strip” and “Joy Ride” also tried to mix sex with laughter.
At the end of May, Powell will return to theaters in the comedy “Hit Man,” about an undercover agent who begins a passionate affair with a suspect, played by Adria Arjona. In addition to starring in the R-rated film, he co-wrote the script with Richard Linklater and served as producer. (It will arrive on Netflix in June.)
“‘Body Heat’ was one of the inspirations,” Powell said in January, when “Hit Man” debuted to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival. “There aren’t many sex scenes in movies anymore, and certainly not many that are well done.”
He continued: “‘Body Heat’ has a lot of foreplay, which is one of the reasons it feels so intense: steamy, carnal.” (“Body Heat,” released in 1981, starring Kathleen Turner as a rich woman who plans the murder of her husband while having a torrid affair with a sleazy lawyer, played by William Hurt).
This summer’s multiplex lineup includes “Deadpool & Wolverine,” from Disney-owned Marvel Studios; one trailer included a joke about an intimate act involving a sex toy. (The activity “isn’t new to me,” jokes Ryan Reynolds, playing the mischievous Deadpool, “but it is to Disney.”) “Blink Twice,” a twisted thriller starring Channing Tatum as a tycoon who lures women to a private retreat. , its release is scheduled for August.
Recovery may simply be a programming quirk. “Challengers” was supposed to come out last year, but was delayed due to union strikes. Its arrival now, sandwiched between “Poor Things” and “Hit Man,” could be creating the false appearance of a turnaround in the film industry.
But there are signs that suggest genuine change. One involves intimacy coordinators or experts who help performers overcome the discomfort of filming sex scenes. Their inclusion on sets, once a rarity, became common after the #MeToo movement of the late 2010s. Film producers say stars have become more willing to engage in intimacy as a result. simulated.
Young screenwriters and directors also seem to be rediscovering films like “American Gigolo” (1980) and “9½ Weeks” (1986) and finding inspiration. Some studio executives say filmmakers like Luca Guadagnino, who directed “Challengers,” are interested in exploring changing attitudes about sex, as seen in the rise of Onlyfans and the unashamed embrace of sexual fluidity by young millennials and Generation Z. (A counterpoint: In a study last year by the Center for Scholars & Storytellers at the University of California, Los Angeles, about 52 percent of respondents ages 13 to 24 said they They wanted movies and TV shows to focus more on friendships and platonic relationships).
Perhaps it contributes to a degree of sexual liberation: studios have stopped chasing China, where ticket buyers have turned en masse against Hollywood films.
So far, box office results have been mixed. “Anyone but You,” made by Sony for $25 million, grossed a hefty $219 million this year, while “Poor Things,” which cost Searchlight Pictures $35 million, grossed a solid $117 million. . Other attempts (“Joy Ride,” “No Hard Feelings”) have disappointed or failed completely.
Reviews for “Challengers” have been extremely positive. Box office analysts expect it to gross approximately $15 million in its opening weekend in the United States and Canada, where it is screening in 3,400 theaters, enough to take the No. 1 spot.