Hollywood Sexism Rules: Number of Female Protagonists Falls in 2017

Variety ^ | February 22, 2018 | Brent Lang

[EdnaMode]

Television has tons of female led series. Maybe movies are different since audiences skew younger than TV?

[robroys woman]

To me, having female Protagonists is a bit like having pregnant males.

I can never take seriously those movies where the women beat up men. A 50 year old man in average shape can snap a 30 year old body builder female like a twig if the need arises, generally speaking.

So I watch those movies rarely and mostly just for the special effects because the story is not believable.

[Trillian]

Movies suck now because of all their ridiculous quotas.
Thank you leftards for destroying almost everything.
When I watch a movie, I want to be entertained by people that can actually act and tells a good story. I especially love a good comedy that isn’t afraid to offend anyone.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks EdnaMode.

Hollywood’s glass ceiling remained firmly in place as studios failed to back female-dominated movies last year

That's BS. The studios did nothing BUT back them. The moviegoing public is just fed up with their *******ed b***s***. A few years ago there was the Ghostbusters reboot -- yeah, that was a great idea, almost straight-to-video. And why? The ****head director blamed Trump voters. Even with the tax reform act I won't be spending my money on Hollywood's BS.

[rjsimmon]

I can never take seriously those movies where the women beat up men. A 50 year old man in average shape can snap a 30 year old body builder female like a twig if the need arises, generally speaking.

You obviously have never been attacked by a hot, young, foreign government agent female with daddy issues!!!!

[HamiltonJay]

Good,

Of course, now they will move on to homosexual protagonists.

[HamiltonJay]

Well she wasn’t a foreign agent, that I know of, but she did have Daddy issues, and I loved every second of it.

[BlueLancer]

No Capes!!!!

[rjsimmon]

Pictures, or it didn’t happen!!

[robroys woman]

You obviously have never been attacked by a hot, young, foreign government agent female with daddy issues!!!!

---

If I were single, I’d pay for that. ;)

[Architect of Avalon]

When women are the protagonists in movies, they often treat all men as villains by default, and that isn’t something that most men would would like to pay to watch.

[Obadiah]

Uh, kinda like the WNBA and women’s sports in general. In the last couple of years women soccer players have been bellyaching about not being paid the same as their male counterparts. But somehow it just never ever seems to dawn on them that nobody really cares about women’s sports.

Women’s sports is like watching the B team play. And so it is with movies, despite all the CGI efforts by Hollywood. Despite the massive effort to create a realistic illusion, everyone simply knows that women just cannot do certain things men do... no matter how much they stomp their feet and complain about that.

[Lizavetta]

Women’s sports is like watching the B team play.

What I've been thinking but couldn't quite put it in words. There's only a few women sports that I think are worth watching - gymnastics and figure skating.

Other than those, as you said.

[ExTxMarine]

The entire premise of this story is simply Male Bovine Excrement! They didn’t talk about the TOTAL number of female protagonist movies, they talked about the top 100 grossing films!

Honestly, Hollywood has done all they can to put women in the leading roles of movies. So it isn’t “Hollywood Sexism Rules”.

The fact is the American people didn’t like those movies! Maybe, JUST MAYBE, if Hollywood made movies that people liked - female leads and all - then people would watch them. Otherwise, Hollywood will continue to go down hill - but not fast enough!!

[Lizavetta]

Hollywood’s glass ceiling remained firmly in place as studios failed to back female-dominated movies

It's the ticket payers' lack of interest, not a glass ceiling. Hollywood is, if anything at all, a whore for the dollar. If those movies made boatloads of money, they would be made.

[EdnaMode]

Yay!

[Obadiah]

Very good examples and I imagine why women’s gymnastics and figure skating is actually rather popular.

[Lizavetta]

The gymnasts flat out do amazing gravity-defying moves, some of it over a a long block of wood called a balance beam that they could crack open their head on if they fall.

The skaters are graceful and beautiful to watch, and they have amazing legs. Spins and jumps and twists, all performed over what is essentially frozen concrete.

[LexBaird]

In 2017, just 24% of protagonists in the 100 highest grossing films were women. That was a drop of five percentage points from 29% in 2016.

I don't think they know how stats like this work. To me it says, "Hey, 71% of the movies that made money in 2016 had male leads. People seem to prefer male leads, so we have a better chance of making money with them. Let's make more Male lead movies and maximize our chances."

[MoochPooch]

Women also weren’t granted the same opportunity to age gracefully on screen as men.

Well, YOU try saving the world while battling hot flashes!