Interesting Article From /Film
I just came across this article on /film that I found to be, if nothing else, interesting:
While some may immediately assume sexism is afoot, I see it more as a statement to the viewing habits of the general public.
The box office return on films starring popular male leads is extensively higher (in most cases) than those with popular female leads.
If you take a brief look at the list, you’ll see that the #1 earning male: Harrison Ford, made $65 million last year, while the #1 earning female: Angelina Jolie (as if you had to guess) made only $27 million. On the other side of the spectrum, the lowest of the top ten females, Kate Winslet, grossed $2 million in 2008. In contrast, Will Ferrell is number ten of ten in terms of the highest grossing male actors last year, to the tune of $18 million: almost ten times the gross of Winslet.
Something is definitely sour about these numbers, but it’s not necessarily that females are making a lot less than males per picture. Angelina Jolie pulled in $20 mill for her involvement in 2005’s Mr and Mrs Smith, which is a salary on-par with the A list male actors of her level.
I think the big reason the differences are so high are staring us straight in the face at the local cinemas right this very instant: the almighty franchise. Terminator: Salvation, starring Christian Bale, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, starring Shia LeBeouf, Star Trek starring a mostly all-male cast.
The franchise has always been the realm of strong male leads, almost always saving the world in one fashion or the other. To Hollywoods credit, they have made attempts at launching female-lead blockbusters, such as Aeon Flux and Ultra Violet, but they’ve almost always come up empty handed. Exceptions do exist, however, with the likes of Resident Evil continuing to generate ridiculous numbers at the box office. Some may respond with ‘The story in Aeon Flux was terrible! The script for Ultra Violet should have been burned!’ And to those, I would say: Did you see Wolverine? Did you sit through Transformers 2?
Clearly, a strong script isn’t what lays the foundation for a financially successful franchise, so why is it that most cases of strong female heroines end up face-down in the dirt come opening weekend?
I don’t pretend to have the answer, and I’d be hard pressed to say there’s a clear cut answer to give. Instead, my only intention is to hopefully stir the hornets nest a bit and potentially give you and your film buff friends something to think about while you’re sitting in the theatre this weekend… watching Transformers for the second time.
James Cooper | Development Manager
