Chick flick is a slang term for the film genre catered specifically to women's interests, and is marketed toward women demographics. They generally tend to appeal more to a younger female audience and deal mainly with love and romance. Although many types of films may be directed toward a female audience, the term "chick flick" is typically used only in reference to films that contain personal drama and emotion or themes that are relationship-based (although not necessarily romantic, as films may focus on parent-child or friend relationships). Chick flicks often are released en masse around Valentine's Day.

The term "chick flick" was not widely used until the 1980s and 1990s. It has its roots in the "women's pictures" of the early twentieth century, which portrays the woman as a victim and housewife, and later the film noir of the 1940s and early 1950s, which portrays the threat of sexualized women. In the 1950s, many women who were in the workforce during World War II faced the transition back into the home. Brandon French notes that the women's films of the 1950s "shed light on a different cluster of issues and situations women faced in their transition from the forties to the sixties: romance, courtship, work, marriage, sex, motherhood, divorce, loneliness, adultery, alcoholism, widowhood, heroism, madness and ambition."

The film Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), commonly known as one of the "classic" films from the golden age of cinema, is sometimes considered an early chick flick due to common elements such as dealing with loneliness, obsessive materialism, and happy endings. Author Molly Haskell has suggested that chick flicks are very different from the women's films of the 1940s and 1950s in that they now "sing a different tune." She feels that they are "more defiant and upbeat, post-modern and post-feminist.

In the United States in the 1980s, a succession of teenage drama pictures also labeled as chick flicks were released, many by director John Hughes. These often had a different and more realistic tone than previous chick flicks, with dramatic elements such as abortion and personal alienation being included.

Several chick flicks have been patterned after the story of Cinderella and other fairy tales (e.g. A Cinderella Story (2004), Ever After (1998) and Pretty Woman (1990)), or even Shakespeare in the case of She's the Man (2006) and 10 Things I Hate About You (1999). In addition, a large number are adapted from popular novels (e.g. The Princess Diaries (2001) and The Devil Wears Prada (2006)) and literary classics (e.g. Little Women (1994)). While most films that are considered chick flicks are lighthearted, some suspense films also fall under this category, such as What Lies Beneath (2000).

These works have risen since the 1980s, mostly noticed in the early 2000s, and continued to evolve through the 2010s and early 2020s. In its early development, the films were created as white-female-targeted films, primarily involving white-female characters, topics, and interests.

As the genre developed, there was repetitiveness in the plot and characters of these productions. "Chick flicks" often began with single characters, who soon after unexpectedly meeting a suitable and charming significant other, their lives took a turn for the better.

The first productions of this genre were not initially labeled as "chick flicks"; they were just known as "Girly Films". "What sets it apart from other films geared towards a female is its focus on consumer culture.". Films of the genre such as Clueless (1995), The Princess Diaries (2001), and Mean Girls (2004) act as evidence of such. In all of them, buying feminine clothes, makeup, or shoes is portrayed as a large part of women's identities. Women are often portrayed as overly emotional and dependent on men; reinforcing patriarchal societal expectations that women should prioritize finding a romantic partner and getting married. These expectations can be interpreted from films such as He’s Just Not That Into You (2009) and The Notebook (2004).^{[citation needed]}