ABSTRACT
Maid in Manhattan (Wayne Wang, 2002) offered a means by which to explore the ways in which the narrative model and box office success of Pretty Woman (Garry Marshall, 1990) could be rewritten to incorporate a “raced” and “ethnic” subject. The film, with a worldwide box office gross of $154,906,693 and a budget of $55 million, was a success within its genre, though hardly equaling the earlier Pretty Woman, which had a worldwide box office gross of $463,406,268 and a budget of $14 million. In contrast, a film like Something New (Sanaa Hamri, 2006) that deals with inter-racial relationships, in spite of largely positive reviews, as well as two charismatic if less well-known stars, Sanaa Lathan and Simon Baker, had a dismal worldwide gross of $11,468,568, pointing not only to the importance of Lopez’s already established fan base to Maid in Manhattan’s success, but also to the relative difficulties of managing race within the context of popular cinema. For example, I Think I Love My Wife (Chris Rock, 2007), a remake of the French 1970s classic Chloë in the Afternoon (Eric Rohmer, 1972) featuring a largely African-American cast, earned only $13,196,245 worldwide at the box office in spite of the fact that Chris Rock, the star and director of the film, enjoyed an international reputation as a television personality. Both Something New and I Think I Love My Wife have in common female
characters who exemplify the neo-feminist paradigm, indicating the pervasiveness of its influence, while underlining the dominance-at the box office in any case-of the “white” ideal. Like the aging woman, the woman of color must be exceptional, perhaps even a star, to enjoy the full fruits of neo-feminism and serve as the subject for a successful girly film.1 Nonetheless, it is important to recognize that the paucity of older heroines and of ethnically and racially diverse heroines cannot be attributed to the neo-feminist paradigm itself, as films like Maid in Manhattan or Something’s Gotta Give (Nancy Meyers, 2003) demonstrate. Rather, it is in part a function of what Thomas Schatz calls “Conglomerate Hollywood,” dominated by “a half-dozen global media superpowers.”2
