Have you ever wondered why they never came out with a sequel to The First Wives Club? Goldie Hawn has the answer. We won't sugarcoat it — it's pretty disappointing.
In an interview with the Harvard Business Review, the actress explained how Hollywood is reluctant to finance films starring women, particular those who are considered of a more mature age. That was the case with the 1996 comedy.
"The big money goes to kids and young men — big tent-pole movies, which are expensive but have a great return," Hawn said. "The smaller movies aren't being made as much. For instance, First Wives Club. We were all women of a certain age, and everyone took a cut in salary to do it so the studio could make what it needed. We all took a smaller back end than usual and a much smaller front end. And, we ended up doing incredibly well. The movie was hugely successful. It made a lot of money. We were on the cover of Time magazine."
The film, which was made on a $30 million dollar budget, grossed more than $181 million dollars, but the studio still wasn't willing to share the love when it came time to discuss a sequel.
"But, two years later, when the studio came back with a sequel, they wanted to offer us exactly the same deal," Hawn revealed. "We went back to ground zero. Had three men come in there, they would have upped their salaries without even thinking about it. But, the fear of women's movies is embedded in the culture."
Funny how a film about women getting short-changed tried to do just that in real life. Cue a two-finger salute and a singalong to "You Don't Own Me."