Warner chief producer puts freeze on movies w/ female leads

[Xisiqomelir]

Linka

Warner's Robinov Bitchslaps Film Women; Gloria Allred Calls For Warner's Boycott

This comes to me from three different producers, so I know it's real: Warner Bros president of production Jeff Robinov has made a new decree that "We are no longer doing movies with women in the lead". This Neanderthal thinking comes after both Jodie Foster's The Brave One (even though she's had big recent hits with Flightplan and Panic Room) and Nicole Kidman's The Invasion (as if three different directors didn't have something to do with the awfulness of the gross receipts) under-performed at the box office recently. "Can you imagine when Gloria Allred gets hold of this? It's going to be like World War III," one producer just told me. (I put in a call to Glo, who comments below.) robinovsandy.JPGOf course, Warner Bros has always been male-centric in its movies. But now the official policy as expressly articulated by Robinov is that a male has to be the lead of every pic made. I'm told he doesn't even want to see a script with a woman in the primary position (which now is apparently missionary at WB). Oh yeah, the fact that so many Warner Bros movies have been sucking at the box office for the last two years is all the fault of females. (Then again, Robinoff's poorly performing Superman Returns starred a girlie-man.) As regular readers of my own box office reports know, I've noted how chick flicks haven't been doing well at the box office lately. But Robinov's statements aren't about women's movies as a genre, they're anti Hollywood actresses. Besides, neither The Brave One nor The Invasion were classic chick flicks, either. "It's a phenomenal thing to say. What are we in the 1700s where women are back to being barefoot and pregnant?" a producer railed. "What's next -- fire all the Warner Bros women executives?"

UPDATE: Noted women's rights attorney Gloria Allred just gave me this statement in response to what I've posted above: "If that's what he said, when movies with men as the lead fail, no one says we'll stop making movies with men in the lead. This is an insult to all moviegoers and particularly women. It is truly unfortunate that women get blamed for decisions which are made by men. Instead of taking responsibility for their own lack of judgment about which scripts to make, directors to hire and budgets to OK, some men in the movie industry find it easier to place blame for their lack of success on women leads and to exclude talented female actors from the top employment opportunities in Hollywood in favor of macho males. If that studio confirms that their policy is to now exclude women as leads, then my policy would be to boycott films made by Warner Bros."

[Jim Raynor]

So fucking stupid. There are examples of successful movies with female leads, and it's not like movies starring male actors don't flop.

It really seems to me that being openly misogynist is a lot more acceptable these days than something like being openly racist. If the president of WB said they would no longer be making movies starring black people, there would be a fucking shit storm. But I wouldn't be surprised if this guy doesn't suffer any serious consequences.

I saw this posted at another message board I frequent, and people were actually praising him for making a sound business decision.

[Patrick Degan]

And once again, Warner Bros. finds a way to shoot itself in the foot.

[CmdrWilkens]

So basically they just want to alienate what little audience they have left for their products. I get it, the more people you offend with crappy writing or misogynistc bullshit or stupid plot decisions the better your buisness is doing.

[The Yosemite Bear]

in other news Dot Warner had no comment but was last seen heading to his office with an oversized 100 ton hammer.

[JME2]

What in the hell is this bozo thinking? Well, on a side note for the comics fans, there goes any chance of the Wonder Woman film being made (though given the creative hell it's been in, that's not much of a loss)/

[Tsyroc]

Hmmm, is the current Resident Evil movie doing fairly well at the box office? It probably isn't a WB movie but it does have a female lead.

As for Jodie Foster and Nicole Kidman, wouldn't it make sense to wait and see how both of those movies do on DVD? I don't know much about the Kidman movie but I'll probably see the Foster movie on DVD.

This guys statements would make more sense if WB had spent a buttload of money on really expensive movies with expensive actresses in the lead and then the movie tanked but you would think he'd at least look at who the leads were and what the movies were about instead of making such a blanket statement.

That being said I just fucking hate Gloria Allred. She's like the Al Sharpton, Jessie Jackson of feminism. At one point she was arguing that concessions should be made for women in jobs they might not be physically capable of doing. She even argued that it might be better for a person to be dragged on the ground from a burning building (below the smoke and all that) instead of being quickly removed by someone strong enough to use a fireman's carry on them.

[Siege]

Two movies didn't do so well at the box office, and rather than the script, the PR campaign, the direction, the time of year or any of a myriad other things, it must be the female leads that are the cause of this!

What a brilliant analysis. God, who the hell thinks like this that wasn't born in the 17th century?

[Teebs]

I don't understand why he was stupid enough to announce it. Obviously it's a stupid and offensive decision in and of itself, but then telling everyone that he's made it just makes things worse.

[Lagmonster]

I wonder what we would see if we were to somehow compile a list of all movies WB has ever made. I wonder which has the higher percentage of flops; ones starring men or ones starring women.

[Darth Wong]

The guy is an idiot, but it's also true that blockbusters tend to have male leads, whereas films with female leads can hope to be a qualified success at best. If one is hoping to only make blockbusters, then like it or not, you probably do want to focus on male-led films. Of course, no studio out there makes blockbusters exclusively, so this whole idea is retarded.

[CmdrWilkens]

Part of that is no one has ever truly scripted a film that is well placed and planned to be a female led blockbuster. That said just in recent memory the original Lara Croft & Charlie's Angels could pretty easily meets the blockbuster criteria. If you want to stretch to strong female characters than both first two Terminators had that and over the life of its series the Alien series was also pretty damn successful with a female lead. Yes men tend to lead blockbusters but I think its that we tend to write solely for male leads in those situations. No one is writing strong high impact stories for female leads they are just attaching them as eeye-candy appendages or shoe-horning them into dramatic roles in obvious non-blockbuster films.

[Master of Cards]

The guy is an idiot, but it's also true that blockbusters tend to have male leads, whereas films with female leads can hope to be a qualified success at best. If one is hoping to only make blockbusters, then like it or not, you probably do want to focus on male-led films. Of course, no studio out there makes blockbusters exclusively, so this whole idea is retarded.

Pixar hasn't made a flop as far as I can tell.

[septesix]

While the guy is a douche for saying this, the box office data Sadyl Agrees with him.

I just hop over to bok office mojo and check out the top gross film in the last few years and, there are distressing few films with just the female leads that had gross over the 100M mark.

2007:
18 Hairspray (2007) NL $118,096,909
2006:
17 The Devil Wears Prada Fox $124,740,460
19 Dreamgirls P/DW $103,365,956
2005:
NONE, the closest is Flightplan at 89M
2004:
21 The Grudge Sony $110,359,362
24 Million Dollar Baby WB $100,492,203
2003:
21 Freaky Friday BV $110,230,332
29 Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle Sony $100,830,111
2002:
10 Chicago Mira. $170,687,518
18 The Ring DW $129,128,133 ( But I can't really say if this count as sole female lead)
19 Sweet Home Alabama BV $127,223,418
2001:
15 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Par. $131,168,070
19 The Princess Diaries BV $108,248,956
2000:
13 Erin Brockovich Uni. $125,595,205
14 Charlie's Angels Sony $125,305,545
21 Miss Congeniality WB $106,807,667

I"m only selecting movies that don't have a obvious male co-lead. There really is very few movie that can do well with just a female leads.

[Jim Raynor]

Why are you using $100 million as the criteria for whether a movie does well? $100 domestic is good, that's blockbuster territory. Most movies starring men or women will not make that much. What about all the normal movies that aren't released in the summer, are made on modest budgets, and make a decent amount of money, like $60 to $80 million?

While it is a fact that fewer blockbuster movies have female leads, the existence of all the movies you mentioned above is already proof that women can make it. I also think that this could simply be a function of studios just not making as many big movies featuring women.

[ray245]

While the guy is a douche for saying this, the box office data Sadyl Agrees with him.

I just hop over to bok office mojo and check out the top gross film in the last few years and, there are distressing few films with just the female leads that had gross over the 100M mark.

2007:
18 Hairspray (2007) NL $118,096,909
2006:
17 The Devil Wears Prada Fox $124,740,460
19 Dreamgirls P/DW $103,365,956
2005:
NONE, the closest is Flightplan at 89M
2004:
21 The Grudge Sony $110,359,362
24 Million Dollar Baby WB $100,492,203
2003:
21 Freaky Friday BV $110,230,332
29 Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle Sony $100,830,111
2002:
10 Chicago Mira. $170,687,518
18 The Ring DW $129,128,133 ( But I can't really say if this count as sole female lead)
19 Sweet Home Alabama BV $127,223,418
2001:
15 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Par. $131,168,070
19 The Princess Diaries BV $108,248,956
2000:
13 Erin Brockovich Uni. $125,595,205
14 Charlie's Angels Sony $125,305,545
21 Miss Congeniality WB $106,807,667

I"m only selecting movies that don't have a obvious male co-lead. There really is very few movie that can do well with just a female leads.

What about the international gross?

[Adrian Laguna]

That being said I just fucking hate Gloria Allred. She's like the Al Sharpton, Jessie Jackson of feminism. At one point she was arguing that concessions should be made for women in jobs they might not be physically capable of doing. She even argued that it might be better for a person to be dragged on the ground from a burning building (below the smoke and all that) instead of being quickly removed by someone strong enough to use a fireman's carry on them.

Well that's funny, one of my English teachers in High School was short, scrawny, and studying to become a firefighter. I asked her about it and she said it was more about endurance than strength, and that they have training for a reason.

The guy is an idiot, but it's also true that blockbusters tend to have male leads, whereas films with female leads can hope to be a qualified success at best. If one is hoping to only make blockbusters, then like it or not, you probably do want to focus on male-led films. Of course, no studio out there makes blockbusters exclusively, so this whole idea is retarded.

This blog which I found by Googling for more information, has quite a few numbers on recent films starring females and those with females as co-stars. Of the top 100 domestic grossing films this year so far, 10 were fronted by an actress. Of the top 100 last year, 7 were fronted by an actress. Though the interesting thing is that films have been grossing a lot less this year when compared with last year. #100 for last year was Crank, which grossed $27.8k, this is higher than the upper 50s for this year.

[Darth Wong]

Of the top 100 domestic grossing films this year so far, 10 were fronted by an actress.

So 90% of the top-grossing films have a male lead. Once again, the guy comes off as a douche but from a strict business perspective, you can see where he's coming from. Business is a numbers game, and 90% is a pretty goddamned convincing number.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I didn't go see 'The Brave One' because it looked ridiculous. With lines like 'I want my dog back' undermining Foster's credibility as a real person, I'm not going to watch a 100-lb woman waging a one-person vigilante war, because it makes no sense.

[Civil War Man]

I didn't go see 'The Brave One' because it looked ridiculous. With lines like 'I want my dog back' undermining Foster's credibility as a real person, I'm not going to watch a 100-lb woman waging a one-person vigilante war, because it makes no sense.

They actually came up with a credible reason as to why she was able to wage a vigilante war without being immediately caught by the cops.

Spoilerized for your safety The cops were focused on finding the guy responsible for the killings. They were able to determine that the killer was small due to angling of shots, but male serial killers are so much more common that they just assumed the vigilante was a guy. Plus, it took them a really long time to find any witnesses, since Jodie Foster usually ended up in a bad part of town, gets threatened by some piece of shit criminal, and then shoots him in a panic.

The story was contrived, and the ending was mad lame, though.

[Instant Sunrise]

Wow... So what happens to Warner when June rolls around and the WGAw, DGA, and SAG all go on strike, and Warner doesn't have as many movies ready?

[Adrian Laguna]

I didn't go see 'The Brave One' because it looked ridiculous. With lines like 'I want my dog back' undermining Foster's credibility as a real person, I'm not going to watch a 100-lb woman waging a one-person vigilante war, because it makes no sense.

One of the many variations praising Mr. Colt's gift to mankind as a whole states: God made man and woman, Sam Colt made them equal.

[Tsyroc]

Well that's funny, one of my English teachers in High School was short, scrawny, and studying to become a firefighter. I asked her about it and she said it was more about endurance than strength, and that they have training for a reason.

That might actually be the more important criteria. It's just that the show I saw her arguing on it came down to an argument about hauling people out of a building. Which if you get down to it is going to be tough for most people if the person being rescued weighs between 100 and 150 pounds. Just think of how many people weight far more than that these days and I don't see many firefighters, male or female, doing very many one on one rescues.

My cousin is a firefighter up in Phoenix, and from what he went through for testing and the comments he got I think your English teacher was entirely correct about stamina being important. Neither my cousin or his brother-in-law, who's also a firefighter are big muscular guys. They are really fit though.

They do have some strength/stamina requirements but I think it has more to do with being able to wear all the gear and perform some tasks involving other gear (like the hose) in a certain amount of time.

[Adrian Laguna]

Well that's funny, one of my English teachers in High School was short, scrawny, and studying to become a firefighter. I asked her about it and she said it was more about endurance than strength, and that they have training for a reason.

That might actually be the more important criteria. It's just that the show I saw her arguing on it came down to an argument about hauling people out of a building. Which if you get down to it is going to be tough for most people if the person being rescued weighs between 100 and 150 pounds. Just think of how many people weight far more than that these days and I don't see many firefighters, male or female, doing very many one on one rescues.

Well that's the point isn't? Gloria Allred's such a dumbass that she got suckered into a big strawman of reality. More than that, she waltzed into it willingly to make her retarded arguments. Fact of the matter is that carrying people out of building is hard, regardless of whether the firefighter is male or female. They're all trained to the same standards anyway, and said standards are both logical for the job they do and attainable by any healthy person willing to put forth the effort.

[Ender]

I didn't go see 'The Brave One' because it looked ridiculous. With lines like 'I want my dog back' undermining Foster's credibility as a real person, I'm not going to watch a 100-lb woman waging a one-person vigilante war, because it makes no sense.

I didn't go see it because it was better when it was titled "Taxi Driver".