Scott Mendelson: Because girls only go to movies like Transformers 2 for the chick-flick elements in them...?

Apparently, women are once again being told that they only go to movies for the mushy stuff. Check out this quote from David Germain's AP box office rundown : "The sequel broadened the franchise's fan base. Females accounted for just 40 percent of the audience for the first "Transformers" but 46 percent for the sequel, (Paramount vice chairman Rob) Moore said. Much of that was due to the on-screen romance for the characters played by Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox, who were relative unknowns when the first movie came out. Really? You really think that any more than a handful of women went to see Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen because of the thirty-seconds of romantic bantering between Megan Fox and Shia LeBeouf? Right, just like the only reason women saw 300 was because of the five-minute subplot involving the queen's attempts to rally support for her husband's army. And, don't forget Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace , which drew females only because of a ... (link)