This weekend's opening of New Moon showed that young women are a moviegoing audience that can and will shell out the bucks. The $146 million opening of New Moon is not the highest in history, but it at least doubled the film's production costs, which ranged from $50-70 million dollars. This means that compared to testosterone-fueled movies like Spiderman and The Dark Knight (estimated production costs of $185 million), "chick flicks" can be made for less money and could bring in a bigger return for the bean counters.

While most people will focus on the boatload of money that New Moon raked in over the weekend, Melissa Silverstein at Women & Hollywood, reminds us that women weren't grabbing their popcorn and soda just to cheer on Team Edward or Jacob:

And while everybody expected New Moon to be big (but not this big) what is more astounding to me is how well Sandra Bullock's movie did opening opposite the juggernaut. The film actually performed way better than industry estimates which were at best $20 million and it cements Bullock back as a powerhouse. The Blind Side topped her great opening this summer with The Proposal bringing in $33.6 million.

Bullock's films, moreso than New Moon, demonstrate the buying power of women, even the much maligned older woman. The film's success was built on 59% female ticket buyers with 75% of them being over 25. If you really think about it, it is older women who made this weekend a huge success because 50% of the audience for New Moon was over 21, and 75% of The Blind Side's audience was over 25.

AND let's not forget Precious. The film widened to over 600 screens, took in $11 million, and is still raking in high per-screen averages. It will roll out wider this holiday weekend.

Does this mean that women can finally go to the theater to see movies that might treat us like women and not just objects? I guess it depends on how you feel about the estrogen-packed movies from the weekend. Feminists are having quite a debate on whether or not the Twilight series is a good chick flick. Will our stories be told the way we want? Maybe. But maybe not, as there is debate about the kind of picture "The Blind Side" and "Precious" paints about African-Americans.

Wherever you fall on the debates, it is clear that women of all ages are standing up (or rather sitting down) and saying, "We want our own movies!"