Super Bomb

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Let's take the Wayback Machine and go way back to when I was working at The Walt Disney Studios.

Besides striving for good stories, believable characters, and solid entertainment, we also realized how important it was to know who your audience was and to create an experience they could identify with, and enjoy. Sounds simple? Well, mostly it was, but it also demanded a focus and a vision to achieve those goals.

Something we understood was the difference between boys and girls.

Some in our society today seem to be flummoxed by this distinction, in my time we had no problem in knowing what made a boy different from a girl. And it wasn't too far removed from the old nursery rhyme, "sugar and spice and everything nice, that's what little girls are made of" and "snips and snails and puppy dogs' tails, that's what little boys are made of."

As far as entertainment is concerned, boys love superheroes, adventure, and action. Girls love princesses, love stories, and emotional involvement.

Of course there are exceptions, but primarily these are what separated the boys from the girls.

In a Disney movie, the usual idea traditionally was to incorporate some aspects of all those things so that you had a picture that would appeal to both girls and boys (and to adults, as well).

Later movies, books, and merchandise were targeted specifically for either a boy or a girl market.

Superhero movies mostly attract boys, while Barbie and other princess movies capture girls. We now live in a time where many filmmakers are ignoring the old rules of what appeals to a boy and what appeals to a girl.

It isn't ignorance, it is purposeful gender-bending in keeping with the DEI movement.

But there's the thing, most kids haven't gotten the woke memo. Little boys are still little boys, little girls are still little girls.

Which brings me to the latest box office flop, "Supergirl."

It appears that Warner Bros. superhero film is headed for major bombville.

In its opening weekend it is on track to losing at least $100 million, making it one of the lowest earning superhero pictures of the current era. It took in only $37 million domestically and $30 million overseas. That's a box-office total of $67 million world-wide against a more than $200 million budget. Analysts say that in order to break even "Supergirl" would have to earn $375 million, and projections don't look good for that happening.

My question is, just who was the target audience for this picture? Who thought little boys would identify with a girl superhero? Or did the filmmakers think that little girls would rush out to watch a superhero girl fighting crime?

Sorry folks, but the girls want Barbie. The boys want Batman. That's the way our biology shakes out. It's been like that forever.

There could be many other reasons that the film is bombing, I suppose. Some say it is because the main character is a lesser-known comic book character, others say it is simply because the picture isn't good enough.

And some say it is that today's audience has "superhero movie fatigue."

Or maybe it's because the actress playing Supergirl appeared all over the media before its release saying that the film is a paean to the LGBTQ+ agenda and calling anyone who might not like the movie a raging sexist and racist. Hmmm.

Or maybe it's all of the above. Whatever it is, I say the old rules of the road still apply. Good stories, believable characters, and solid entertainment. And don't forget, boys will be boys and girls will be girls.

Make your movies accordingly. .

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