The Chick Flick is a genre of movie which is nebulously defined, not by its content so much as its market, namely women.
They tend to be romantic in content, whether drama, comedy, or both. Women are likely to be noble victims or sassy, klutzy twentysomethings looking for love, and men either charmers who may or may not be secret jerkasses or hopelessly confused but sweet. Being centred around women you are also likely to encounter scenes of women actually talking about things other than men (though jealous Cat Fights may turn up).
Sometimes movies that don't fit this formula will be considered Chick Flicks simply because they feature a female protagonist. Or, for that matter, even having women in them for reasons other than Fanservice. However, a female protagonist is not actually necessary for a Chick Flick — Made of Honor or What Women Want for example both have male protagonists while still being clearly marketed at women. A male Chick Flick protagonist is likely to be a Handsome Lech who learns the error of his ways through coming to terms with his feelings for the female lead.
Romantic Comedy is an important Sub-Genre of the Chick Flick. It's worth noting that "rom-com" films are actually supposed to be popular because they serve both sexes as good date movies (romances are usually targeted at women, comedies are usually targeted at men). Some of the more successful examples do this right (usually if they have a decent comment to make on the nature of men and women), but for the most part, not so much.
Another important genre is melodrama films, which amp up the perceived scale and emotional response on everything. Basically, every little hurdle becomes a mountain, every setback a tragedy of Greek proportions, and the official couple will be Star-Crossed Lovers over the tiniest things, usually thanks to outside interference and poor communication. Melodrama can quite easily hook viewers into becoming emotionally invested in the characters, even to the point of a Tear Jerker burst of weeping. Possibly the most triumphant example of this date-movie genre is the film Love Story, which, according to legend, is responsible for more pregnancies than any other single film.
The literary equivalent is Chick Lit. The male equivalent is a work Rated M for Manly.
Compare/Contrast Lifetime Movie of the Week, the dark, embittered and often vengeful Evil Twin of the Chick Flick. Some even say that Chick Flicks are what a woman's life is before marriage. Lifetime Movies are what it is after she gets married. Also compare with Josei and Shoujo Demographics. May be placed in the Girl-Show Ghetto.
Examples:
- 13 Going on 30
- 27 Dresses
- As Good as It Gets
- Austenland
- The Baby-Sitters Club
- Bagdad Cafenote
- Barbie (2023)
- Barefoot in the Park
- Beaches
- Because I Said So
- Bridesmaids
- Bride Wars
- The Bridges of Madison County: A different kind of film from Clint Eastwood.
- Bridget Jones' Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
- Brief Encounter
- Calendar Girls
- Chasing Liberty
- Chocolat
- A Cinderella Story
- Clueless: A Setting Update of Jane Austen's Emma.
- Compromising Positions
- Confessions of a Shopaholic
- The Craft: A film that's part-chick flick, part-supernatural horror.
- The Devil Wears Prada
- Dirty Dancing
- Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood 'Sisterhood' in the title is generally a giveaway.
- The Divorcee is a movie with a female protagonist that has to deal with a stable of handsome male admirers. One where she cries a lot. And her husband cheats on her.
- Don Juan De Marco
- Down with Love an Affectionate Parody of romcoms from The '50s.
- The Duchess which is about the complex love triangle between the duke, his wife and the duke's mistress Lady Bess Foster.
- The Earrings of Madame de...: A middle-aged woman caught between her cold, distant husband and her exciting, passionate lover.
- East Lynne: A noble, virtuous woman is victimized and buffeted by a heartless prig of a husband and an irresponsible, shiftless lover, is separated from her child, and goes through a series of traumas while dreaming only of seeing the baby again.
- Enchanted April
- The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain This one can also work for straight guys who enjoy subtler comedies (there must be some straights like that yet to be discovered.)
- Enough. Well, perhaps not a chick flick so much as a big-screen Lifetime Movie of the Week.
- Erin Brockovich
- Ever After
- The Fault in Our Stars
- Fever Pitch
- Fifty Shades of Grey
- Four Weddings and a Funeral
- Fried Green Tomatoes - A rarity for being about something else than shopping, love or men. It's about friendship between grown, mature-minded women past their teens.
- Funny Girl
- Ghost
- The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
- Grease
- Grease 2
- The Great Lie
- The Harry Potter movies
- The Help
- How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (Indeed, a great deal of Matthew McConaughey's output falls into this)
- How Stella Got Her Groove Back
- I Love You Too
- In Her Shoes
- The Jane Austen Book Club
- Julia
- Julie & Julia (no connection with the above movie)
- Just Like Heaven from the same director of Mean Girls.
- Kate & Leopold
- Kitty Foyle — Ginger Rogers as, yes, a sassy career girl looking for love
- Legally Blonde
- Little Black Book
- Little Women Any and all versions.
- Love Actually
- Love Affair and its remake, An Affair to Remember
- Love Story
- Made of Honor
- Magnificent Obsession — melodramatic romance involving tragic deaths and blindness and brain tumors
- Marie Antoinette (2006)
- Maid in Manhattan
- Mamma Mia!, at least in movie form, is a Chick Flick through and through.
- Mean Girls
- Mildred Pierce — one that's of the Film Noir variety.
- Millie — Female protagonist disappointed and betrayed by a succession of men, until she sacrifices herself for the welfare of her daughter.
- Mirror Mirror (2012)
- Mona Lisa Smile
- Monster-in-Law
- Moonstruck
- Music and Lyrics
- Must Love Dogs
- My Best Friend's Wedding
- My Big Fat Greek Wedding
- My Brilliant Career A criminally-overlooked Australian gem.
- Never Been Kissed
- The Notebook
- Notting Hill
- Now, Voyager
- Off The Rails 2021
- The Other Boleyn Girl where history's Henry VIII is torn between the ladylike Mary and her scheming sister Anne Boleyn.
- Out of Africa
- Personal Best Rare but valid evidence that chick flicks and athletics don't have to be mutually exclusive.
- Peyton Place — soapy melodrama with rape, murder, and a central plot line being the estrangement between a mother and daughter
- The Philadelphia Story
- Pillow Talk
- Pretty Woman
- The Princess Diaries and its sequel.
- Private Benjamin
- The Proposal
- P.S. I Love You
- Roman Holiday Perhaps a borderline case; the runaway-princess plot is chick fodder, but this movie also includes the male-pleasing sight of Audrey Hepburn riding a Vespa (she also gets to bash a guitar over a guy's head.)
- Romancing the Stone
- Romy and Michele's High School Reunion
- Rumor Has It...
- Run Away Bride
- Sabrina, both versions:
- The Sex and the City movies.
- She's the Man
- The Shop Around the Corner- this is the original version of You've Got Mail.
- The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
- Sixteen Candles
- Sleepless in Seattle, which for good measure includes chick flick An Affair to Remember as a recurring joke.
- Something Borrowed
- Splash with a non-Romantic Plot Tumor dominating the second half.
- Steel Magnolias
- Stella Dallas
- Stepmom
- A Stolen Life
- Sweet Home Alabama
- Terms of Endearment
- Thelma & Louise
- Titanic (1997), though it was originally anticipated as a Disaster Movie before it came out.
- To All the Boys I've Loved Before
- To Each His Own: Olivia de Havilland left with Someone to Remember Him By
- The Turning Point (1977)
- The Twilight movies.
- Two Weeks Notice
- Venus Beauty Institute - French film in which a 40-year-old beautician with a fear of commitment is surprised to find herself in a romance with a younger man.
- The Wedding Planner
- Waiting to Exhale - A much more bitter take on this than usual.
- A Walk to Remember
- What Women Want
- When Harry Met Sally...
- While You Were Sleeping
- The Women
- Yentl
- The Young Victoria about the famous British queen growing up.
- You've Got Mail