Ike Perlmutter has always been something of a pimple on the butt of the comics industry, focused much more on the bottom line than on, in a word, art or creativity. Sadly, as one of the winnners in the bloodbath around Marvel's bankruptcy in the late 90s, he's been Marvel's CEO ever since.
Why don't we have a Marvel female superhero solo film? Because Ike Perlmutter thinks it's a yucky idea, P&L-wise.
As revealed in one of the Sony emails leaked by WikiLeaks, Perlmutter thinks (as of last year) that superhero movies focused on women just can't make any money. His cited evidence:
Elektra (2005)
Catwoman (2004)
Supergirl (1984)
Of course, it's damned goofy to think that a couple of movies over a decade old, let alone one over thirty years old, proves much of anything. The fact that each of these movies was deeply panned by the critics indicates that a major reason these movies failed wasn't that audiences don't want to see GIRRRLLLLSSS, but because they were bad movies.
Heck, the Daredevil movie that Elektra spun off from was pretty awful, too, and, hey, look, Marvel managed to recently do this cool Netflix series that seems to have been pretty successful. Go figure!
It's beyond unfortunate that Permutter has this attitude, but despite that Disney/Marvel are at least planning a Captain Marvel movie (in 2018) and a Jessica Jones series on Netflix, too. Hopefully they will be well-crafted enough to make enough money to ease Mr Permutter's concerns.
I was gonna say it makes no sense, but…for a certain point of view…it makes total sense.
All I know is it just give me more confidence that my novel will work as far as marketability….since it does involve a badass female hero…
But here's hoping that Black Widow doesn't suck…cause…that would only give more ammunition to these knuckleheads.
+Victor Powell There is no Black Widow movie on the schedule. Captain Marvel is scheduled in Nov 2018 (I give it a 45% shot we'll ever see it happen).
+Dave Hill Ah, I thought there was a Black Widow movie…heh, maybe this latest Avengers was suppose to be it…to a certain degree…but anyways, yeah….d
+Victor Powell I've heard tell that Winter Soldier was considered the Black Widow movie in some circles, though there are some good contributing bits in both Avengers installments.