This weekend, ‘Maleficent’ surpassed industry expectations becoming the top money-maker at the box office taking in 70 million, making it the biggest opening of Angelina Jolie’s career.
Meanwhile, Seth MacFarlane’s “A Million Ways to Die in the West” disappoints, bringing in just 17 million.
(Pause here for victory dance celebrating girls and women everywhere.)
“Maleficent” is the latest female driven film, after “Frozen” and “Catching Fire,” to make tons of money and debunk the ridiculously sexist myth that only movies with male protagonists are super profitable. This powerful lie influences the movies that get made for children as well. For example, in 2014, 18 kids’ movies star males while only 6 star females.
It’s especially great to see MacFarlane stumble because the guy is such a sexist pig. He’s the Oscar host who sung the horrible, offensive, and not funny “We Saw Your Boobs” song. MacFarlane called out great actresses like Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and Helen Hunt, telling them that he “saw their boobs,” acting like this on screen nudity was a show just for him– and all males– and had nothing to do with the narratives or the parts these women played. He sung that he saw Jodie Foster’s boobs when she played a rape survivor in “The Accused.” The guy makes me sick. That night, he sung that he saw Angelina Jolie’s boobs as well. Now, who’s the boob? It looks like it’s time for MacFarlane to start thinking about what he can show to get people to buy tickets for his boring, loser movies.
