Last year, numerous leaked emails from the Sony hack made headlines around the world, revealing plans for potential movies such as a 21 Jump Street and Men In Black crossover, Ghostbusters 4 starring Channing Tatum and the Spider-Man reboot. Recently, the Wikileaks website has categorized over 30,000 searchable emails from the Sony hack, one of which shows why Marvel Studios isn't exactly keen on making female-lead superhero movies. The August 7, 2014 email, from Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter to Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton, hints that Marvel isn't interested in making female superhero movies because, simply, they don't make money, citing three specific examples. Take a look at the email below.

Michael,

As we discussed on the phone, below are just a few examples. There are more.

Thanks,

Ike

1. Elektra (Marvel) - Very bad idea and the end result was very, very bad. BoxOfficeMojo.co/Movies/?id+elektra.htm

2. Catwoman (WB/DC) - Catwoman was one of the most important female character within the Batman franchise. This film was a disaster. BoxOfficeMojo.com/movies/?id=catwoman.htm

3. Supergirl - (DC) Supergirl was one of the most important female super hero in Superman franchise. This Movie came out in 1984 and did $14 million total domestic with opening weekend of $5.5 million. Again, another disaster.

Best,

Ike

This may be why Marvel won't pull the trigger on a Black Widow movie, despite the rising popularity of Scarlett Johansson. However, the studio is developing a Captain Marvel movie, an announcement which was made in October 2014, a few months after this email, so perhaps Ike Perlmutter has reversed his stance since then. It's worth noting that Scarlett Johansson's non-superhero movie Lucy pulled in $458 million worldwide from just a $40 million budget last year, and one has to look no farther than The Hunger Games franchise to see that female-lead movies can turn huge profits. And, to be fair, plenty of male-driven superhero movies have flopped at the box office, such as Daredevil and Green Lantern.

Aside from the mention of a phone call, we have no context as to why this email was sent, but it's possible that Michael Lynton was seeking Ike Perlmutter's advice about making a female-lead superhero movie. There were rumors of an all-female Spider-Man movie being developed by Sony, but that was never confirmed. What do you think about this leaked email? Do you think Marvel should be developing more female-lead superhero movies? Let us know what you think below.