We began our search for background information by searching on Google for a study that has already been done regarding the correlation between gender and movie genre preference but did not find anything.  We then decided to do a mini-study of our own and did a Google search for the top ten movies every guy should see and took the results from http://movies.popcrunch.com/10-1-of-50-guy-movies-a-modern-guide/.  The list contained classics such as Caddyshack, The Matrix, Dirty Harry, Scarface and The Godfather. We then looked up each of the movies individually using the search bar on netflix.com and looked at each movie’s information to find the genre it is classified as.  Six out of the ten movies were classified as either sci-fi and fantasy or action, so these genres would appear to be the prominent genres for males.  
     Then we did a search on Google for the top ten movies for women and found a list of the top ten chick flicks from http://movies.msn.com/movies

/article.aspx?news= 143736.  The list had the movies Steel Magnolias, When Harry Met Sally, Pretty Woman and Gone With The Wind among others.  We then did the same thing as we did for the male list to find the genres.  All but two of the films were classified as drama or romantic comedy, so these two genres appear to be the leading genres for females.  
     We then did a Google search of the top ten grossing movies for the past three years, 2009, 2008 and 2007. We first found the 2007 list at http://movies.

yahoo.com/ feature/top10moviesof2007.html. The list included The Bourne Ultimatum, 300, Shrek The Third, Spider-Man 3 and Transformers among others.  The 2008 list had movies such as Horton Hears A Who, Twilight, Hancock, Iron Man and The Dark Knight.  This list was found at http://movies.yahoo.com/

photos/redcarpet/gallery/1319/top-10-box-office-movies-of-2008#photo0.  Lastly, we found the top ten movies of 2009.  This list contained The Blind Side, Star Trek, The Hangover, New Moon and Avatar, from http:// movies.yahoo.com/

photos//gallery/2284/top-10-box-office-movies-of-2009#photo0.  We again looked up the genres and few of the movies were of the female genres we found earlier.  Most of the movies were action movies.  This could perhaps mean that woman are becoming more and more interested in this type of movie.  Also, as we looked at each individual year, more and more kids and family films were on the list.  
     We finished our search by searching for a list of the top grossing movies of all time at http://www.imdb.com/boxoffice/alltimegross/.  Then we looked at each movie’s information and recorded the genre given.  Most of the movies on the list were classified as either sci-fi or action and adventure.  From the research we did, these genres have been affiliated mostly with a male audience.  The typical female genre, drama or romance, only appeared three times on the list.  

         From this research, we learned that mostly movies from the male genres appear on the top ten lists and on the all time box office list.  We conclude that maybe less woman are gravitating towards romance and drama and more towards action and adventure.  We expect this to also be reflected in our results and maybe gender will not have as big an effect on movie preference as we had originally thought.