As of the tip of September, when I’m scripting this, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is sitting at just below $1.5 billion on the field workplace, which doesn’t embody streaming purchases and leases. It is at #11 in whole home lifetime gross and #14 worldwide, regardless of solely being launched two months in the past. Barbie relies on a doll, not a e book, however I believe it’s affordable to check it to different IP films, together with these primarily based on books. And probably the most profitable IP films total are comedian e book films.
There have been extra live-action Spider-Man films than there have been whole live-action feminine superhero films. This is true even in the event you rely feminine supervillain films like Catwoman and Elektra and lower-budget films about lesser-known superheroines like Barb Wire and Tank Girl. If we get rid of the three Nineteen Seventies made-for-television Spider-Man films, the ladies take the day by a grand whole of two films (the precise variety of supervillain films), however then once more, if we add within the animated Spider-Verse films, Spidey wins by a landslide. So perhaps we name it a tie.
Before anybody argues with my math, I’m referring to U.S. studio movies primarily based on comedian books. Here are the titles in query. Female leads: Super Girl (1984), Tank Girl (1995), Barb Wire (1996), Catwoman (2004), Elektra (2005), Wonder Woman (2017), Captain Marvel (2019), Birds of Prey (2020), Wonder Woman 1984 (2020), and Black Widow (2021). Spider-Man: Spider-Man (1977), Spider-Man Strikes Back (1978), Spider-Man: The Dragon’s Challenge (1981), Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Spider-Man 3 (2007), The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).
It’s hardly a secret that films generally — and superhero films specifically — cater to males, but it surely’s positively an issue. Women and males attend film theaters in roughly equal numbers: in keeping with the MPAA, in 2019, it was 50/50 (I assume they don’t survey for nonbinary attendance), and in 2021, it was 53/47, skewing male for the primary time in over a decade (contemplating that ladies are nearly all of caregivers and we’re in a mass disabling occasion, the slight drop doesn’t look like important knowledge to me). Female-led films out-perform the competitors constantly, in keeping with knowledge primarily based on 2014–2017 field workplace. And but, feminine characters are extraordinarily underrepresented in media. Not to say the truth that feminine administrators helmed about 4% of studio films in 2018 and had solely crawled as much as 18% in 2022 (oops, I discussed it, so I will even say that indie movie and streaming are doing a lot better, however nonetheless effectively under 50%).
So what does it imply when a female-helmed, female-led film dominates the field workplace like Barbie has? I’m not knowledgeable analyst of such issues, however my layperson’s conclusion is:
GIVE US MORE MOVIES LIKE THIS.
Unfortunately, Warner Brothers (the studio behind Barbie) doesn’t appear to have taken that message from their newly acquired fortune. (Yes, I’m conscious of how this works, and I notice they don’t actually have $1.5 billion in revenue.) WB handles a number of main franchises, together with DC. You know DC, after all, for its main superheroes equivalent to Batman, Superman, a few hundred different dudes, and additionally Wonder Woman and Harley Quinn. You additionally may do not forget that they made a Batgirl film and then unceremoniously dumped it regardless of the film being completed and able to go to its deliberate streaming dwelling. They made numerous claims in regards to the film not being releasable for that reason or that and have doubtless destroyed all copies of it. In brief, they took it as a tax write-off, permitting the brand new CEO to dictate the movie slate by erasing his predecessor’s selections as a substitute of letting women see a younger lady of coloration don the Batsuit.
Cool cool cool cool.
You know what film WB stored from the outdated slate and gave an enormous advertising push? The Flash. Already gone from theaters, it grossed simply over $250 million worldwide, roughly $50 million over its funds (which, as a consequence of studio math not trying like actual math as a result of advertising is just not included as a part of the funds however is counted towards revenue, is a big loss). The film stars Ezra Miller as Barry Allen. Miller has been arrested a number of instances each previous to and since filming started on Flash, and they’re accused of assorted counts of harassment, housebreaking, little one endangerment, stalking, abuse, grooming, and assault (please remember that there are particulars on the Rolling Stone hyperlink). Warner Brothers delayed the movie’s launch as a consequence of dangerous press round Miller however determined that shelving it could be “unprecedented” [stares in Batgirl].
This is the studio that advantages from Barbie. A studio run by males who would somewhat promote Ezra Miller and lose cash doing so than quietly launch an uncontroversial film for ladies onto streaming. Barbie is their highest-grossing movie ever, surpassing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 inside six weeks of launch. So, what’s on their upcoming slate of movies? Numerous remakes and sequels, only a few of them aimed toward women. Their subsequent Mattel property is Hot Wheels, with the film being produced by Bad Robot, J.J. Abrams’s firm.
Have the WB brass determined that the promoting level for Barbie was the truth that it’s primarily based on a toy? Probably! MGM is making a Polly Pocket film to be directed by Lena Dunham. It appears doubtless that we’re going to be overrun with toy films, completely lacking what was interesting about Barbie.
And audiences — particularly women — are the losers right here. Film studios maintain earning money regardless of their completely incomprehensible selections. They merely don’t care if these selections will not be worthwhile (like Flash) as a result of they’ve the cash from “surprise” hits like Barbie (shock to whom, precisely?) and from their shady tax write-offs (RIP Batgirl).
It’s a rattling disgrace.
The one brilliant spot within the post-Barbie world is that director Greta Gerwig has been handed the keys to a different main franchise: Narnia. Sure, that deal was made earlier than Barbie did field workplace numbers, however I’m selecting to be glad about it and about no matter she does subsequent.
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