It's been a rough couple of weeks for superheroine movies, and Monday topped things off when the (anti-Oscar) Razzie nominations were released, including seven for Catwoman, most in the field.  The film was nominated for worst picture, worst director, worst screenplay, worst actress (Oscar-winner Halle Barry), worst supporting actor (Lambert Wilson), worst supporting actress (Sharon Stone), and worst screen couple (either Barry and Benjamin Bratt or Barry and Sharon Stone). 

 

The Razzie noms come on the heels of the disappointing open for the Elektra movie (see 'Elektra Tanks in Debut'). 

 

And this week's Entertainment Weekly did a full-page story on the over-all negative trend for superheroine movies (titled 'Elektracuted'), looking for an explanation (remember Supergirl?--maybe Catwoman wasn't so bad after all).  Among the theories explored is the lack of successful examples and the possibility that the teen male target demo is actually afraid of strong, sexy women.

 

When all is said and done, it's unlikely that the lack of movie success will negatively impact merchandise sales featuring the characters for the long term.  Although neither Catwoman nor Elektra seemed to drive any significant product sales during the theatrical release periods, the DVDs might be another story.  Catwoman, if it does end up selling well as a DVD, wouldn't be the first bad movie that tanked at the box office and still had respectable DVD sales.