Personally, I could care less about the sex of a lead character. That is a minor point in the issue, in my opinion. But, with all the subtext, minor plots, and throwaway scenes designed specifically to hurt one gender to the benefit of another which appear in these movies, then I get frustrated. In many cases, I get the impression they are actually holding women back by bringing up gender issues from two generations ago to keep those frustrations fresh in our minds. Anyway, I don't have a strong dog in the fight. I do see the hard data that the franchise cannot draw anything close to the audience they are expecting and in many cases needed to justify the expense of buying the studio AND investing so heavily in vastly expanding its market presence. After all, if the movies cannot draw a large enough audience, they are wasting money and could be do other projects. There is a ton of brilliant and creative ideas for entertainment out there, and when good ideas cannot find supporters because the limited resources are focused on these mega-movies which have massive organizations to create and market them, those mega-shows better be worth it.
