They can pay the women way less. Compare the salaries. Sure, they say it's all about empowerment but the real truth is closer to the pocketbook.
shareOr maybe ....just maybe ....they're doing it because that's the direction that the source material (the Marvel comics) went in, too. And that's the correct answer, not some SJW fantasy, not actor's salaries, and not left-wing conspiracies.
Sure, Lemmy. It's that simple. Why did Marvel go that way in the first place? Just so the artists could draw more boobs?
shareSnowflame the cocaine powered villain was in Marvel comics, should he be in the MCU movies?
shareSo the thing that ruined marvel comic division (to the point where they dont even get a single spot in top 10 comics sold, getting outsold by manga in US) is going to come and ruin the movies too?
And they only realized this now? Lol.
Compare the salaries??
I bet Black Widow earns more than spiderman. And they are both gone.
She actually made more than Cpt America and than Ant Man.
They pay SOME of the males more than SOME of the females for a simple reason: fame. And how many viewers that fame can bring in the theaters.
It is not "fame" that does it, it is box office draw. Robert Downey Jr. draws in hundreds of millions if not billions of box office revenue when he is the lead. Christ Hemsworth brings in Similar amounts and does so consistently. Scarlet Johansson does not bring in nearly that amount as consistently. Few actresses do, but when they constantly bring in big numbers their salary usually reflects that.
A better question would be, why do women lead films (especially action films) typically bring in less consistent revenue?
fame and how many viewers are brought in are in direct correlation.
Having a famous woman as a lead in an action movie would bring more viewers than having a no name male lead.
Why do you think women lead films bring less consistent revenue? The answer is easy: biology, and based on that a bit of societal bias.
But sometime a female lead brings as much as a male lead.
Atomic blonde vs John Wick: almost same budget, almost same box office.
Wonder Woman vs Man of steel or Batman vs Superman: Wonder Woman was cheaper AND made more at box office ...
"fame and how many viewers are brought in are in direct correlation. "
Correlation does not automatically equal causation. Fame tends to lead to bigger box office draws but I would argue that Scarlet Johansson is just as famous as Robert Downey Jr. and yet Downey's movies typically bring in far larger box office numbers, and not just the Superhero movies. The sherlock Holms movies each brought in over 500 million. Ghost in the Shell completely under performed bringing in only 160 million and Lucy though it did well still brought in over 100 million less than the Sherlock films. So if it is fame alone why does Johansson perform less consistently than Downey Jr.
"But sometime a female lead brings as much as a male lead."
Not as often or consistently
"Atomic blonde vs John Wick: almost same budget, almost same box office."
Actually Atomic Blonde performed slightly better than the 1st John Wick, but every John Wick sequel has nearly doubled the box office take of the previous installment. We would have to wait to see how an Atomic Blonde 2 would perform to see if the inconsistent female lead action film box office gross pattern that I am talking about would show.
Do a comparison between somewhat similar films like the Cell with Jennifer Lopez and The Matrix. The latter's box office was over 400 million were the Cell was only 104 million. Was this because Jennifer Lopez was less famous than Keanu Reeves and Lawrence Fishburn around the late 90's? No I would argue that Jennifer Lopez was more famous than either of them but fame alone was not enough to bring in the dollars. Of course other factors go into this; marketing, type of film, word of mouth, reviews on initial release. But the point is typically even famous female actress lead films tend to earn less than Male lead films. There are all kinds of reasons for this, and some are interesting to talk about. It is the main reason actresses earn less than their equivalent 'level' actors.
>why do women lead films (especially action films) typically bring in less consistent revenue?
They dont. At least in some genres, like Horror, female lead films are usually the profitable ones.
True in Horror genre's Women leads do seem to hold the better consistency on profit, but I think in most other genres (especially action) it is not as consistent as male lead. But in fairness that might be a result of volume, there are many more male action lead films than female lead. If the balance was more even perhaps the consistency would be too.
shareI don't see it as a replacement, since female superheroes exist in this universe.
shareIt actually is a replacement if you introduce new female chars while you retire mainly male chars. That's what replacement means.
Yeah...Thanks for that explanation.
But no one's introducing new female characters while retiring mainly male ones because these are not new characters. Carol Danvers, for example, has been around since the 1960s.
But if we're just talking about films, which of the upcoming Marvel female heroes are new? Black Widow is getting a film and Scarlett Witch is getting a TV series. Which of these are considered new?
Also not sure what you mean by "retiring mainly male ones", as though there's so many leaving the universe. Several of the actors retired, so for right now film makers are respecting that and not re-casting. But that hardly puts a dent in the mostly-male future superhero film lineup. We're getting films for Doctor Strange, Loki and Hawkeye. A Hulk solo movie probably would've already happened if not for bad blood between Marvel and Universal.
Besides this, the current Marvel film universe has a predominantly male cast, so of course more males would be leaving, but the comic universe is much more equality gendered, so we shouldn't have had to wait so long to be introduced to "new" female characters by this point. I've been wanting to see a lot of the female X-Men in film for ages, which is why I'm so excited for The New Mutants.
valkirie, basically new. Replaces Thor which is retiring.
Iron man, retired and possibly replaced by Pepper, or the black guy - which is another side of the same trend. Cpt America, retired.
Even Cpt Marvel was initially a man.
Having more female super heroes is cool, but can't they just introduce additional heroes without replacing the old ones? Like wonder woman, that was a well done female superhero.
I dont know, i dont see the scene as Thor retiring. The opposite, instead of being a sitting king he is now free to go around adventuring, meaning he is more likely to be a character in next film than Valkyrie, who will be busy turning into administrator.
I don't agree with the conclusion. Queen Brie got paid 5 million for her first appearance in the MCU. Chris Hemsworth got something in the range of 150 thousand for his first appearance. They had a story out about it during the lull between Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame. There is no glass ceiling in Hollywood, just the name you have that's either (currently) big in people's minds (like Kevin Feige's for instance) or you're just kind of known. For whatever reason, Feige and people at Marvel think Queen Brie hung the Moon. Based on what I've seen of her performances, I'm trying to figure if they've seen something the rest of us haven't seen. A tree stump has more acting charisma. Just saying.
shareYea but thats Brie. Even a single cent paid to her is a cent too many, unless you are paying for a plane ticket to get her far away.
For some reason someone on hollywood loves her despite her best attempts to ruin anything she is in. Well, given that its Feige pushing her.... Kevin Feige is an insane man.
Yeah, I've been worried about Feige ever since he started giving ear to the Hollywood "crazies" who want to make everything a social/political/feminist commentary. Hiring Brie to be CM was one of those "OH NO" moments. However over the past several months, it seems cooler heads might have pulled him back a bit as audience tracking data and fan feedback have shown that CM was not a well-received character, with most finding her boring at best and insufferable at worst. Whereas they had planned to make her the new face of the MCU in Phase IV, it now appears that they are dialing her presence back substantially. Thank God!
What has me worried now is the next THOR movie.