Issac Perlmutter
(photo credit: Variety)
Current Marvel CEO Issac Perlmutter and Sony CEO Michael Lynton had an awkward little email interaction recently that just came to light. The email, which is from Perlmutter to Lynton and dated August 7, 2014, and addresses the subject line: “Female Movies.” It emerged as part of the Sony hacks which resulted in former Sony Entertainment President Amy Pascal being fired.
As you can probably guess, this isn’t a positive email:
Michael,
As we discussed on the phone, below are just a few examples. There are more.
Thanks,
Ike
1. Electra (Marvel) – Very bad idea and the end result was very, very bad. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=elektra.htm
2. Catwoman (WB/DC) – Catwoman was one of the most important female character within the Batmanfranchise. This film was a disaster. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=catwoman.htm
3. Supergirl – (DC) Supergirl was one of the most important female super hero in Superman franchise. This Movie
came out in 1984 and did $14 million total domestic with opening weekend of $5.5 million. Again, another disaster.
Michael Lynton
(photo credit: Hollywood Reporter)
While he’s not wrong that these movie did do terrible numbers and were themselves terrible, the argument is that he’s pitting the tiny amount of female superhero movies against the relatively enormous category of male-dominated superhero movies. Basically, he’s ignoring the many flops of male-driven superhero movies like Batman vs. Robin, Daredevil and the gosh-darn awful Green Lantern. Women superhero movies simply haven’t had the chance to do enormous numbers because there have been so few made.
If we could get some well-made (not just dumped into theatres) female superhero flicks, then this would at least be a fair fight.
We’ll see what the public outcry looks like on this — but as far as the Sony leaks go, this is a bad email.
The difference between Green lantern, Daredevil and Batman and Robin is that these films all earned more at the box office than the budget allocated so therefore they were still successful. Where as the female superhero films listed all made less than the budget allocated to each film and therefore were failures to the company, as their main priority is to make a profit.