[deleted]

I don't want to get into a fight about human nature, but it's simply not true that males are naturally more aggressive etc. Not only have women been pretending to be men to sneak into wars since their inception, they've actually been hired specifically based on their gender - look into women fighter pilots in Russia for example. Or Kameron Hurley's article 'Women Have Always Fought' is a good start.

I do think boys identify more with male characters - but I don't see what that has to do with the world market, considering women are the majority spenders and half the population. I also don't see what that has to do with who girls and women identify with.

I also think you're overlooking the major success of films like the Hunger Games, as well as cult favourites among both genders, like Sarah Connor of the Terminator franchise, Xena: Warrior Princess and Ripley from the Alien franchise. There's statistical evidence that shows that men do not in fact sell better. However, the history of women heroes in film is short - in TV it's longer. And a lot of those heroes are from the past, not the present.

If execs cared about history, there'd be a lot more female characters within the superhero genre today, but there are not.