Article examines after-effects of disappointing box office performance for Jennifer Garner flick.
An Entertainment Weekly article this week examines whether Elektra's lackluster box office take (opening fifth place with $14.8 million--a third of Daredevil's), means superheroine movies are done for.
Coming on the tail of Halle Berry's much-maligned Catwoman, Elektra got mixed reviews despite a lot of pre-release hype by 20th Century Fox. Here's an excerpt:
"Elektra certainly had hit potential. Daredevil exit polls showed that audiences enjoyed Garner's sexy sai-wielder as much as Ben Affleck's blind vigilante," EW says. Garner's star power, a successful ABC spy series Alias and a budget that was about half of DD's $80 million were all pluses. But:
1) Audiences seemed unwilling to pay to what they can see Garner do for free on Alias.
2) It was a pioneer film without a lot of ground broken for it (Supergirl, Catwoman, Charlie's Angels).
"America is not ready for a female superhero," Catwoman producer Denise Di Novi told the magazine. "Men [don't] want to see it--especially teenage boys--and it seems like women don't want to, either."
Although teenage boys might be drawn to the sexy female heroes, those characters also scare them, another producer theorized.
Still, why did Elektra and Catwoman fail where female-driven actioners like Tomb Raider and Aliens succeeded. "It's more challenging to make a female superhero," said Marvel Studios exec Avi Arad, conceding that audiences seem more ready to accept men in action roles.
As for Garner, the article gave several reasons why it's unlikely Elektra will slow down her rising stardom.