Action films with female leads are vanishing as a type. This is obvious after watching” Furiosa “‘s recent box office debacle in its first weekend. Despite the enormous hype surrounding the prequel sequel to the adored” Mad Max: Fury Road,” it merely deteriorated in the subsequent weeks.
It’s hard to argue that this is n’t part of a trend. While” Captain Marvel” made$ 1 billion at the box office, later female- led action movies have increasingly underperformed or bombed, from” Charlie’s Angels” ( 2019 ) to” Black Widow”, to” Birds of Prey”, to” The Marvels”, and now” Furiosa”, it’s hard to deny there is a common thread in these female- led action films. Similar to other movies with weak gaps around the same time, like” Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,”” Garfield,” and” IF,” both managed to have much better keeps in their later months. Similar to this,” Bad Boys 4“, a male-led action film with a significantly lower critic rating and good word of mouth, had a much higher box office just weeks later.
But it has n’t always been this way. Action movies with female stars have conventionally performed very well. ” Terminator”,” Alien”,” Aliens”,” Tomb Raider”, the original” Charlie’s Angels”,” Wonder Woman”, and” The Hunger Games”, have all been hits with audiences.
The good news is we know why this is happening, which means there are fairly easy options. Hollywood’s decision to do it is completely another question.
Boy Movies vs. Girl Cinema
Men have generally always been the main target market for female-led action movies. While you can argue that movies like” Alien” and” Terminator” were n’t overtly female- led until the end of their films, their sequels,” Aliens” and” Terminator 2: Judgement Day”, equally beloved by men, certainly did lean into those parts. This does not imply that people have always enjoyed male-led activity movies more than female-led action movies. But they have always valued them more than other people.
Action films, like superhero films, sports films, and Westerns, are about overcoming your own internal flaws and shortcomings so you can overcome an additional power that threatens what you love. Also, styles that appeal more to people, such as intimate musicals, dramas, and lady stories, are about people who start out both as strangers or estranged from each other and who — in the end — become united by passion. Dr. Jonathan Haidt addressed this fly- historical phenomenon in his new book The Restless Generation as representing “agency” versus” holiness” values. This is one reason males tend to get addicted to video game, which emphasize “agency” beliefs, while women struggle with social media vices, which emphasize” holiness” principles.
This also explains the exceptions to the rule that men prefer female-led action movies over women. Consider” The Hunger Games” and the original” Wonder Woman”. Both men had a lot of romantic relationships with their male co-stars, and their stories were heavily motivated by their desire for romantic or familial relationships with others.
A Narrative Shift
But all changed when female-driven action movies pushed overtly feminist and anti-male viewpoints of both men and women.
The first change was when female-led action movies attempted to take on the male-starrer characters rather than create new ones. ” Ghostbusters” replaced the original members with an all- female cast. Star Wars ‘ male franchise leads were replaced by female ones. The Avengers were hailed as the most powerful member of the Marvel Universe and their original source of inspiration. Many of these replacements had a humiliating reputation.
After their journeys ended in previous movies, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker were depicted as broken losers. ( But not Leia. ) Nick Fury was largely portrayed as a joke by Captain Marvel. She-Hulk humiliated Bruce Banner and repeatedly claimed, with the support of the network, that she was a woman, in part because of this. According to Harley Quinn, she created all of the Joker’s best tricks. Even” Charlie’s Angels” revealed Bosley was a secret villain before switching him to a woman, and it later revealed that Charlie was a woman along with him.
There are no differences between men and women — except when women were better, because the filmmakers themselves and the movie’s storylines encouraged viewers to view these tales of female empowerment as explicit feminist messages, and that all of women’s problems are caused by the patriarchy, etc. They were labeled sexist when men opposed or even showed no interest in any of these movies.
Brie Larson ( Captain Marvel ) said she did n’t want to hear any male criticism of female- led movies because it “was n’t made for you”. While there was room for “artistic” reasons for people to dislike the movies, any discussion of specific issues with anti-male bias or disrespect for male characters was framed as misogyny or the issues with having a “male-dominated” fan base ( as Kathleen Kennedy put it ) was made.
This “rebranding” of female-led action movies as feminist myths occurred at the exact moment when men have been voicing their opposition to feminism, in part because men are becoming more and more accepted as second-class citizens in comparison to women. The younger generation of men is less likely than women to achieve success in school and obtain a college degree, which means they are less likely to land a high-paying position and are frequently less likely to be chosen by women for marriage. Much of this is the fault of schools, which dramatically favor women’s learning styles, and workplaces, where gender- biased hiring for the first time favors women over men. This implies that men interpret the anti-male bias in their fantasy as being consistent with the anti-male bias they see in their own lives. They feel like they are fighting back against the ( wo ) man by criticizing the ostensible anti-male media.
This push for female culture-war has not resulted in more female-friendly action movies. Since this push, the primary audiences for these films remain male, even down to” The Marvels” and” Furiosa”, even as men’s interest in women- led action films has diminished.
Female audiences for box office hits like” Barbie” have shown that women are n’t turned off by feminist politics in movies, but sexual politics is n’t going to change that. It’s ironic because” The Hunger Games” and” Wonder Woman” already showed what action movies designed for women’s tastes looked like. Hollywood simply chose not to produce those kinds of films.
Will Hollywood Change Course?
The good news is that fixing this harmful brand is simple. Bring back strong male co-stars in action movies with strong female leads, especially when there is a romantic connection—think Steve Trevor if he did n’t pass away. Hollywood executives should also start addressing anti-male rhetoric in female-led action movies and stop labeling men sexist if they do n’t like their movies.
This is n’t to say action movies should n’t still offer women something as well. Keep relationships, whether that’s romantic or otherwise, at the center of the story. Instead of just killing everyone and dying alone ( or dying themselves ), how does this film center around people we care about and lead to reconciliation and restoration ( i .e., communion )? The action film” Everything Everywhere All at Once” is a good example of one that emphasizes family love and reconciliation.
Because it’s historically done in the reverse way, male-led action movies have the ability to create female-led action movies that do n’t denigrate men. Whether it’s Princess Leia, Pepper Potts, Mikaela from the original” Transformers”, Arwin and Eyowyn from” The Lord of the Rings”, or Nakia from” Black Panther”, male- led action films have long been inclusive of women. There’s no reason why it ca n’t work the other way around.
Joseph Holmes, a resident of New York City, is an overthinker and critic of culture in the city of New York. He is the co- host of The Overthinkers podcast and has been published in the New York Times, Forbes, Relevant, Christianity Today, Acton Institute, Religion Unplugged, and An Unexpected Journal.
