This premise is deeply flawed. But for starters, I want to play a round of ‘outlandish generalisation’ as well.
Here are some reboots and the conclusions I have drawn from them:
The Mummy (2017)
Budget: $125–195 million, Box Office: $410 million, Rotten Tomatoes: 16%
The studio was reported to have lost $95 million.
Conclusion: Tom Cruise is way past his sell-by date. His star has faded. Reboots with male leads just don’t work.
Dolittle (2020)
Budget: $175 million, Box Office: $247 million, RT: 14%
The studio was reported to have lost $100 million.
Conclusion: Robert Downey Jr is box-office poison. His career is over; the guy can’t act to save his life. Reboots with male leads just don’t work.
Hellboy (2019)
Budget: $50 million, Box Office: $44 million, RT: 18%
Conclusion: This hellish reboot goes to show that David Harbour should stick to TV. He’s not a man capable of leading a movie. Also, reboots with male leads just don’t work.
There are literally dozens more.
Now, let’s look at some other reboots:
The Invisible Man (2020)
Budget: $7 million, Box Office: $133 million, RT: 92%
Conclusion: After Tom Cruise killed the Dark Universe, Elizabeth Moss (A Woman!) saved Universal with one of 2020’s most successful movies. Clearly, all reboots starring women are outstanding.
Bumblebee (2018)
Budget: $102–135 million, Box Office: $468 million, RT: 90%
Conclusion: Hailee Steinfeld led the most critically successful Transformers movie in all of mankind. She is the greatest actor on the planet. Clearly, all reboots starring women are outstanding.
Ocean’s 8 (2018)
Budget: $70 million, Box Office: $ 298 million, RT: 69%
Conclusion: Move aside men, ladies are in the building! What a delightful film. Clearly, all reboots starring women are outstanding.
Okay, I have to stop. Even pretend idiocy can get taxing after a while. So, what’s my point? Gender has nothing to do with the quality of a reboot.
The premise of this question is deeply flawed because most reboots starring women don’t flop. Also, there are so few of them – 6 over the last 4 years. It is too small a sample size to draw such a conclusion.
On the other hand, a lot of reboots with male leads flop. Robocop, Total Recall, Robin Hood, Point Break…
What does that mean? It means most reboots aren’t very good and end up as failures. They are inherently an exercise in lazy moneymaking.
And as is the case with all movies, most of them are bad, some are good, and very few are great.
Bumblebee wasn’t well-received because the lead was female and The Mummy wasn’t trashed because the lead was male – there is far too much that goes into making a movie and the gender of the lead is one of the last things that determine its quality. In fact, it has no bearing on it.
But unfortunately, when a film like The Mummy flops, it’s seen as business as usual. But when a Ghostbusters bombs, it’s because of the gender.
I genuinely believe most audience members don’t care about these matters; they want to have a good time, gender be damned. But a vocal section of the internet certainly does.
We can’t make sweeping generalisations, especially when they are patently false. There have been six major female-led reboots since Ghostbusters:
- What Men Want ($20 million / $72 million)
- The Hustle ($21 / $98 million)
- Overboard ($12 million / $91 million)
- Ocean’s 8 ($70 million / $298 million)
- Bumblebee ( $102 million / $468 million)
- Life of the Party ($30 million / $65 million)
Most of these movies aren’t particularly great. I’m not an advocate of reboots, irrespective of the gender of the leads, but setting my bias aside, Ghostbusters is the only female-led reboot to bomb drastically.
And opening Ghostbusters’ can of worms is a whole other answer.
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