Where Are the Female Heroes for Kids?

by Dov Kornits

Diversity is such a hot topic right now, and not just because it trends on social media, but it results in financial success. Then why do we have at least 5 studio films these school holidays for the boys and none for the girls? Arguably, some of these films will cross-over to females, but why don’t any of them have a female protagonist? It has to do with who is making these films, and there’s a systemic issue which we are all trying to address, but you would think that a savvy distributor or cinema chain would have spotted the gap in the market.

If 2017 taught us anything, it is that female driven movies make bank. Women of all ages go to the movies more than men, and they come in packs! Look at the success of Hidden Figures, Wonder Woman, Fifty Shades and any movie starring Bill Nighy and Dame Judi. Women also make decisions for families and take the kids to the movies, and in terms of movies targeting pre-teens or younger, last year we had box office break-outs such as Ballerina, Peppa Pig My First Cinema Experience, Beauty & The Beast, The Emoji Movie and Rip Tide. Even male-skewed hits such as Boss Baby would have appealed to females.

So why these September school holidays do we have Ewan McGregor going through a midlife crisis with his imaginary friends in Christopher Robin from Disney, a male driven superhero posse in Teen Titans Go! To The Movies and a young male Bigfoot in a kingdom ruled by a male bigfoot discovering a male human in Smallfoot from Warner, Eli Roth turning family with a boy orphan and a magical clock in eOne’s The House with a Clock in its Walls, and finally a young prehistoric boy befriending a wolf during a rite of passage in Sony’s Alpha? At the tail end of the holidays we also get Paw Patrol: Mighty Pups from Paramount and Venom from Sony. At least there’s some female YA appeal with Bonsai’s Australian film release Harmony starring the tragically deceased Jessica Falkholt.

Yesterday saw the launch of the Bumblebee trailer, featuring a female protagonist, which bodes well for December, as does the female skewed Mortal Engines; then there’s Alita: Battle Angel on Boxing Day, Mary Poppins Returns on January 1, but there’s also Arctic Justice, Aquaman, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Ralph Breaks the Internet, the new How to Train Your Dragon and Storm Boy on their way for the big end of year holidays. Some of these will appeal to all of the quadrants as they say in the biz, but where are the female heroes for future generations to believe that stories can be about a girl?