[quote]"Grease" reminds me of another monster hit movie that was a piece of shit: "Titanic." That too appealed primarily to the female element. The story was trite and banal (rich girl, poor boy love story), the dialogue sucked, but Leonardo DiCaprio was every girl's dream back then. There were women or girls who went to see that movie dozens of times. One particularly obsessed fangurl saw it over a hundred times! I saw it. I thought the special effects were good, but other than that it was pretty crummy. Anyway, Grease is a bad movie, a bad movie that made a lot of money. It happens.
A movie doesn't become the highest-grossing movie of the year (GREASE) or the highest-grossing movie of all time (TITANIC) by appealing to some demographics. During their original theatrical releases, men, women, gay, straight, whatever, went in droves to see GREASE. The 1950s nostalgia was in full swing, so that helped it a lot, but also the soundtrack was a bestseller. The movie may be corny and trite, but it's got some great songs.
As for TITANIC, it drew all sorts of people: the history buffs (who enjoyed Cameron's eye for detail re ship replica & furnishings and the sinking recreation, more than anything), the Leo fangurls, the people who liked the romance and costume drama aspect of it, and, of course, the special effects and action sequences in the latter half.
True that most of their fans now seem to be female and gay, but at the time, most everyone went to see them in theaters, which accounts for their massive grosses. It's like the GOLDEN GIRLS. It's often associated with just gays and women, but the show wouldn't have been consistently in the Nielsen's top ten, if only women and gay men watched. I don't know how many straight men watch the reruns now, but in its time the show appealed to people of both genders, ages, and orientations.
