Pretty Strict, But a Good Idea

At FiveThirtyEight, Nate Silver’s new data journalism site for ESPN, Walt Hickey examines the financial case for the Bechdel Test (see at left) in modern cinema. Among the findings: “films that had at least two women in them got higher budgets than films that didn’t, but only when those women never spoke to one another.” Generally, Hickey finds, movies that pass the test perform better in the box office than those that do not. (Cate Blanchett already told us that, though.) [FiveThirtyEight]