JLaw says "nobody had ever put a woman in the lead of an action movie" before Hunger Games

[babarsuhail]

"We were told girls and boys could both identify with a male lead, but boys cannot identify with a female lead," Jennifer Lawrence says of taking on the role of Katniss in #TheHungerGames. https://t.co/TqYPwDLCC4 pic.twitter.com/1qyqqkh8aX
- Variety (@Variety) December 7, 2022
In her Actors on Actors interview with Viola Davis, while talking about

Comments

[britneyjeanspea]

I honestly think she meant like a major studio action franchise.

[irajaxon]

...which would still be incorrect

[babarsuhail]

alien, terminator, resident evil franchises to name a few.

[deja_vu822]

would terminator count here? linda hamilton was the protagonist but i think arnold schwarzenegger was marketed just as much as the lead, if not more

[asnindie]

She's the lead of the original Terminator. Though Arnold was the breakout star.

[skeetertuskin]

no, not really. schwarzenegger was billed first and his name appears above the title in all the promos. he's the leading force of the story. i mean the film is called terminator, not terminee.

[britneyjeanspea]

Alien was produced by a private production company (Brandywine Productions) and premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival, before being picked up by Century 20 Fox for distribution. It had a 10m dollar budget. and was not intended as a franchise and was not marketed to having a female lead.

The first Resident evil (2002) was produced by an independent German production company (Constantin Film) with 33m dollar budget and I don't think was a franchise (originally).

Terminator definitely was not marketed as having a female lead.

The Hunger Games was produced by a major production company (Lionsgate), as a trilogy, was marketed as having a female lead, had a budget of around 100m for each movie and grossed in total almost 3 billion dollars ww.

PS for those mentioning Tomb Raider, it was a pet project of video game adaptation writers and was originally financed by a german tax shelter (TMG) before being picked up by Paramount Pictures (who originally rejected the script)

[babarsuhail]

Lionsgate isn't considered a major studio either if you want to get that technical, lol. It's categorized as a "mini-major studio". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_film_studios#Mini-majors

[skeetertuskin]

"Terminator definitely was not marketed as having a female lead."

i think the same applies to the alien franchises. while sigourney/ripley was obviously integral to the story, alien/aliens were the real stars of the franchise and it's what drove people to see the films.