ONTD Original: Marvel CEO does not seem to think female-lead films are worth making

May 1st, 2015, 06:28 pm

ONTD Original: Marvel CEO does not seem to think female-lead films are worth making

In an email exchange discovered by wikileaks between Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter and Sony CEO Michael Lynton, Ike appears to be trying to make the case for why 'Female Movies' aren't worth making.

"From: "IP"
To: "Lynton, Michael"
Subject: Female Movies
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2014 05:32:50 -0400

Michael,
As we discussed on the phone, below are just a few examples. There are more.

Thanks,

Ike

1. Electra (Marvel) – Very bad idea and the end result was very, very bad. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=elektra.htm

2. Catwoman (WB/DC) - Catwoman was one of the most important female character within the Batmanfranchise. This film
was a disaster. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=catwoman.htm

3. Supergirl – (DC) Supergirl was one of the most important female super hero in Superman franchise. This Movie
came out in 1984 and did $14 million total domestic with opening weekend of $5.5 million. Again, another disaster.

Best,

Ike"

How strange of Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter not to write a list titled 'Male Movies' and include Green Lantern, The Lone Ranger, Superman IV, Jonah Hex, Marvel's own Daredevil, Legend of Hercules (amongst countless others) as examples of very, very popular/well known characters/superheros that flopped and were all lead by male protagonists!

I hope in Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter's next email to Michael Lynton he'll have a follow up list including the many, many highly successful female lead films out there like; 'Frozen', ($1,279,852,693), 'Alice In Wonderland' ($1.024 billion), 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' ($864,912,963), or 'Gravity' ($274, 092, 705), or 'Mama Mia' ($609.8 million), or 'Brave' ($539 million) or Sony's very own 'Salt' ($293.5 million), or 'Sex and The City 2' ($305,153,249) or 'Lucy' starring Scarlett Johansson aka Black Widow in Marvel's Avengers franchise ($458,863,600) etc, etc, etc.

And then after perhaps Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter will follow up with an email citing this article by Inkoo Kang which shows that in 2013 movies with a female protagonist earned TWENTY PERCENT MORE ON AVERAGE than movies with a male proganist.
All this makes me wonder, if women lead films are making so much bank even without an inbuilt following e.g. Gravity and Frozen and have such a vast and diverse audience, why doesn't Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter seem think films starring women are worth making?

SAUCES:

nyonyo & me

Dear Gawker, Buzzfeed etc if you are reading this, please credit ONTD.

ONTD, what are your fave female lead films?

TYFYT ONTD

XOXO

SOURCE

Tagged: fail, film - action / adventure, marvel, scandal, sexism, side eyeing you, sony leak - why are u punishing me, this bitch

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Elektra may have sucked but I actually rather liked Halle as Catwoman & the Supergirl movie. :/

Halle was a good actress in an awful, sexist movie

True. The plot was horrible. :/

Even though it had problems, I liked Elektra. :/

(no subject) -

zyuranger Expand

mjspice Expand

semiramis30 Expand

latexana Expand

timbershiver Expand

arrowtoes Expand

I like Halle too

Catwoman was terrible. It felt like a movie you would catch on the scifi channel when they managed to get a rights to a well known source. The dialogue alone was awful.

Catwoman and Halle both deserved a better movie. I've always wanted a solo Catwoman film and that's what I got? Sheesh.

Edited at 2015-05-01 05:00 pm (UTC)

daisyissosilly Expand

Halle would've made a great Selina Kyle and actual Catwoman if they hadn't fucked up EVERY. SINGLE. ASPECT. of that movie, like who thinks "lets make a Catwoman movie not starring the actual Catwoman?"

ljubavirakija Expand

I mean, with all those movies, the lead actresses did their part.

whereisglory Expand

jayene25 Expand

I own the supergirl blu ray and its such a guilty pleasure. It was kinda terrible in the best possible way.

veracity Expand

I read suckled and that became a very confusing thing to unsee.

I loved the supergirl movie as a kid. idgaf it was good or bad, it was good enough for a 7 year old lol

I wish they could do a spin-off movie for Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman in the Burton Batman universe.

Halle's Catwoman cracks me up. I always feel like Sharon Stone is playing herself in the Halle's Catwoman. She has a super villain quality to her personality.

All three of those films were awful but thg franchise alone is indicative of the fact that if people put in EFFORT and try to keep to source material, you can make a good female led movie.

That said: I wanna know what movie hw talked him out of. Bc if it was a Spidey woman movie we were probably better off.

Edited at 2015-05-01 04:56 pm (UTC)

Bitch what do you have against Jessica Drew?!?!?!?!?!

It's SONY. They ignore every piece of good advice given to them.

mec Expand

communion Expand

flawedinsomniac Expand

Browsing through some of the Sony stuff, Drew Goddard kept pitching them on Scorpia as a spiderman villain that they kept forgetting which I found interesting.

caipirinhas Expand

the_tire_swing Expand

Fucking disgusting.

Yeah, those movies were shit. But, SMH @ them not giving a fuck about doing a better script/film

I'm not even surprised. What a piece of shit.

Crossroads is the best female led movie ever made and nothing can change my mind on that.

Elektra and Catwoman were awful and really fucked up the studios faith in female led superhero films, but you can't knock the fact that female led action/fantasy films lately have been amazing. It's bullshit that he ignores the flops that male led superhero films were disasters. And referencing a film that came out thirty years ago to say we can't have female led movies? What a dork.

Edited at 2015-05-01 05:06 pm (UTC)

Omg this is a gif???

I'm gonna jump in and say my two fave female led movies are probably 1st Wives Club & Practical Magic. Crossroads is cute though, I just watched it for the first time last week... I think I would've liked it more when I was 14 but I missed the boat.

milfordacademy Expand

dull_and_wicked Expand

muzicnem Expand

endingonfire Expand

Crossroads as in the Britney Spears movie? really?

Not Thelma and Luis?
Terms of Endearment?
Contact?
The River Wild?
...

stellar_ball Expand

whip it tho!!!!

Death Proof is personally my favorite female-led movie.

snowweisz Expand

dude_isotopes Expand

laurapalmer Expand

nuclearseasonz Expand

palmsread Expand

kjendis5 Expand

thejoker Expand

anydoppelganger Expand

asuka4eva Expand

Re: Crossroads is the best female led movie ever made -

hauntao Expand

Not Steel Magnolias? Charlie's Angels? Legally Blonde? Clueless? Mean Girls? Valley of the Dolls? All About Eve?

Someone should do an ONTD original of kick-ass female-led movies tbh

kwikimart Expand

wesaucereyes Expand

lol crossroads? Try death proof bb

Lmfao at him using a film from 1984. Dumbass

It's so sad he had to reach that far back for examples.

He's used to REACHING.

lmao, mte...as if a 30-year-old movie could or should have any bearing on anything

mte. he's like OH LOOK AT THIS PROOF THAT I HAVE ugh.

I screamed at that-like, so desperate for examples you had to go 30 years back and could still only come up with three total examples.

And then they can't think of, like, The Hunger Games which is literally happening now and showing women-fronted movies can be really successful?

Expose them!!!!

It's truly disgusting that they let their confirmation bias choose their examples for them and then blaming female leads for their failure instead of the shitty scripts. Marvel ain't shit.

Idk about Super Girl, but the problem with those other two films is that they were outrageously poorly made.

Out of the three, Supergirl was THE WORST

But Helen Slater was so pretty though...I started crushing on her in the Legend Of Billie Jean.

pastelstar Expand

rebeccachambers Expand

Super Girl was god awful.

It's from 1984 so it's got bad effects & a not really great storyline :/

A man in charge of something thinks that a woman can't do what men can do? Seems like a day that ends in 'y'.

Maybe these movies were "complete disasters" because they were poorly written pieces of crap not because they were female drive. Suck it Marvel.
Look at Lucy, Alien, Kill Bill, even Resident Evil they all did just fine with female leads.

Oooh good post.

Dear Gawker, Buzzfeed etc if you are reading this, please credit ONTD.

lmao love it

lmao. i didn't even see that

That killed me! XD

ikr, laughing at my desk

ONTD gave buzzfeed the Anna Allen scoop. Maybe they'll steal from us again this time.

lmao really?

sssaurus Expand

Ugh @ both those places

Shoulda told them they're banned tbh.

stewie_e Expand

LOL

Lol

lol mte

Too late: http://perezhilton.com/2015-05-01-marvel-female-superhero-movies-ceo-leaked-email/?from=post#.VUQ5meNXreQ
SMh!

rhapsodeeinblue Expand

AWESOME

dont get me started on how much i hate old ceos like him who literally only care about profit

This gives me an idea for a Death Note parody called Burn Book. I think you understand where this is going.

he clearly doesn't tho, there is a huge demand for female-led movies that he is ignoring in favor of p. blatant sexism

I really don't get why someone with money hasn't come in and just started making a million female-led, female-catered movies. I mean maybe Summit with their neverending YA adaptations. And they're getting rich.

This isn't rocket surgery.

anijen21 Expand

Studio heads are disgusting. I won't even pay to see a film that doesn't star a women anymore. I know Hollywood thinks this way, I'm goin to make sure as much of my money as possible goes to indies that actually do support women.

sigh

Well this is hardly brand new information

The important thing is that we got proof this time

430 comments
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