GOING DOWN

New Report Finds Movies Now Have 40% Less Sex

Hot and heavy is falling out of fashion.

A new report published Thursday found that films aren’t getting hot and heavy the way they used to. The amount of sexual content in 2023’s 250 highest-grossing films has declined 40% percent from the raunchier slate in 2000, according to The Guardian. The decline was the steepest in action movies, which saw sexual content drop of 70% since 2000. The report, penned by data analyst Steven Follows, found that—not only were there fewer sex scenes in movies—but that they were concentrated in a smaller number of movies. Follows suggested that the decline could be due to changing audience preferences, the impact of sex scenes on global releases, and the increasingly widespread use of intimacy coordinators. The trend seems to have continued in 2024: arguably the hottest part of the new film Challengers is when two characters split a churro, but the sexy threesome tennis thriller contains no actual sex scenes.