Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Doctor RJ, rfall, JML9999 and Man Oh Man. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
From the New York Times: How 4 U.S. Lawyers Paved the Legal Path to Kill bin Laden
Weeks before President Obama ordered the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in May 2011, four administration lawyers developed rationales intended to overcome any legal obstacles — and made it all but inevitable that Navy SEALs would kill the fugitive Qaeda leader, not capture him.
Stretching sparse precedents, the lawyers worked in intense secrecy. Fearing leaks, the White House would not let them consult aides or even the administration’s top lawyer, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. They did their own research, wrote memos on highly secure laptops and traded drafts hand-delivered by trusted couriers.
Just days before the raid, the lawyers drafted five secret memos so that if pressed later, they could prove they were not inventing after-the-fact reasons for having blessed it. “We should memorialize our rationales because we may be called upon to explain our legal conclusions, particularly if the operation goes terribly badly,” said Stephen W. Preston, the C.I.A.’s general counsel, according to officials familiar with the internal deliberations.
While the Bin Laden operation has been much scrutinized, the story of how a tiny team of government lawyers helped shape and justify Mr. Obama’s high-stakes decision has not been previously told. The group worked as military and intelligence officials conducted a parallel effort to explore options and prepare members of SEAL Team 6 for the possible mission.
From the
Washington Post:
Budget deal clears House despite opposition from many in GOP
Congress on Wednesday moved a step closer to clearing a bipartisan budget deal that would boost spending for domestic and defense programs over two years while suspending the debt limit into 2017.
The House passed the bill on a 266 to 167 vote late Wednesday afternoon and Senate leaders have promised to quickly move it through the upper chamber. Senate leaders want to move the bill quickly — the Treasury Department estimates the deadline for raising the debt ceiling is Nov. 3 — and sought to start the procedural ball rolling on Wednesday night, with the aim of it hitting the floor this week.
The agreement would essentially end the often contentious budget battles between congressional Republicans and President Obama by pushing the next round of fiscal decision making past the 2016 election when there will be a new Congress and White House occupant.
From the
Los Angeles Times:
Forced cannibalism, gang rape and mass graves: Anatomy of South Sudan's terrible war
In what could become a landmark for African justice, an African Union report on South Sudan’s war has found evidence of gross human rights atrocities and recommended an African court be set up to prosecute those responsible.
The cruelty to civilians during South Sudan’s two-year war shocked the AU commission, which spared few details in describing the crimes: People were beaten and forced to jump into fires. Bodies were drained of blood and other victims were forced to drink the blood or eat human flesh. Women, old and young, were gang raped and left bleeding and unconscious. Children were forced to fight, or were enslaved by militias.
The report, released late Tuesday, also said mass graves of victims were found.
“The stories and reports of the human toll of the violence and brutality have been heart-wrenching,” the commission report said. “All these accounts evoke the memories of some of the worst episodes of earlier human rights violations on the continent, including in South Sudan itself.”
From
Reuters:
U.S. steps up diplomacy, rebel support to end Syrian 'hell': Kerry
The United States is intensifying its diplomacy to end the "hell" of Syria’s civil war even as it increases support for moderate rebels fighting Islamic State militants, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday
The chief U.S. diplomat leaves for Vienna later in the day for talks among more than a dozen foreign ministers on ending the four-and-a-half year conflict. Iran is for the first time taking part in such talks, which will also include Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Russia and Iran both support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad while the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other gulf Arab nations insist he cannot play any long-term role in Syria's future.
In a speech, Kerry made a case for wider U.S. engagement in the Middle East despite growing American energy independence, saying that the conflicts in Syria, Iraq and between Israel and the Palestinians can all threaten U.S. interests and inflame anti-U.S. sentiment at home and abroad.
From
The Guardian:
Herpes affects two-thirds of people under 50, WHO says
Two-thirds of the world’s population under 50 have the highly infectious herpes virus that causes cold sores around the mouth, said the World Health Organization in its first estimate of global prevalence of the disease.
More than 3.7 billion people under the age of 50 suffer from the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), usually after catching it in childhood, according to a WHO study published on Wednesday.
That is in addition to 417 million people in the 17-49 age range who have the other form of the disease, HSV-2, which causes genital herpes.
HSV-1 normally causes mouth ulcers rather than genital infection, but it is becoming an increasing cause of genital infection too, mainly in rich countries.
From
BBC News:
Man ‘wrongly’ jailed for decades for killing UK tourist
A man has been in prison in the US for 23 years for shooting dead a British tourist even though the judge in his trial and police detectives believe he is innocent of the crime.
Robert Jones was accused of being behind a crime spree of rape, robbery and then the murder of holidaymaker Julie Stott in New Orleans in 1992.
Despite another man being convicted for the murder and being overwhelmingly linked to all the other crimes, Mr Jones was never released.
In June, the Louisiana Supreme Court acknowledged that Mr Jones did not get a fair trial and ruled that his case should be reopened. But he remains behind bars.
From
Vice:
Is Cryotherapy a Miraculous Cure-All or a Dangerous Health Fad?
One of cyro's growing number of fans was Chelsea Ake-Salvacion, 24, of Las Vegas, Nevada. She'd fallen hard for the practice, so much so she began working at a spa called Rejuvenice that offered the treatment in nearby Henderson. A Hawaiian who'd moved to the desert town with a boyfriend a few years back, she'd decided to stay when he headed back to the island, excited about her career as a manager at the spa, her uncle, Albert Ake, told the New York Times.
Last week, October 19, Ake-Salvacion's body was discovered inside a cryotherapy tank at Rejuvenice, where she'd stayed after her shift to give herself a session. She was frozen "rock-hard solid," according to her uncle. A Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department investigation has ruled out foul play, but the Rejuvenice location has been shut down. Co-workers of Ake-Salvacion have told the Times she went into the cryo chamber when no one else was at the spa to assist, something they say is never supposed to happen. "Cryotherapy is safe treatment, it's definitely safe, but it's not to be used alone," Elise Iverson, a colleague and friend, told the Times. "It was misused."
Along with her death comes new scrutiny of the unregulated cryotherapy industry and questions about the safety of the practice.
From
Vox:
Why the US sent a missile destroyer into Chinese-claimed waters
On Monday night, the American missile destroyer Lassen sailed within 12 miles of a Chinese-built artificial island called Subi Reef, in the South China Sea. The goal, according to the US, was to challenge China's claims over what are generally understood to be international waters.
China was furious. A spokesperson said the Lassen "illegally entered" the waters and "threatened China’s sovereignty and security interests." On Tuesday, China sent two ships — the missile destroyer Lanzhou and patrol boat Taizhou — to the area and told the American ship to get out. The Americans ignored them.
This tension isn't going away: The US plans to send even more naval patrols into contested South China Sea waters in the coming days. "There have been naval operations in that region in recent days, and there will be more in the weeks and months to come," Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said during a Tuesday Senate hearing.
To understand why all this is happening and where it's going, you need to understand the backdrop. China is claiming important chunks of territory in the South China Sea, making its neighbors really nervous. America is taking the neighbors' side, but not just because it wants to side against China.
From
CNN:
U.S. sensors detect Russian submarines near underwater cables
When a Russian military ship called the Yantar suddenly crossed the Atlantic and started moving down the East Coast of the United States last month, it set off alarm bells inside the world of U.S. naval intelligence.
U.S. spy satellites, aircraft and submarines tracked the ship all the way down the coast to Cuba, according to two U.S. defense officials.
It had been years since the U.S. had seen this type of activity by the Russians, officials said. While the Russians have insisted the Yantar is not a spy ship, U.S. naval intelligence believes it has one significant and unsettling capability: small underwater vehicles that can cut vital undersea cables carrying vast amounts of commercial and military data, voice communications and Internet service between the U.S. and Europe.
Some of these details were first reported by the New York Times.
U.S. officials told CNN there was no indication that the Russians have any intention of cutting the cables, but they said that they are showing off their capability to U.S. naval intelligence by their actions.
From
NPR:
TB Is Now The Top Infectious Killer (Even Though Deaths Are Down)
Tuberculosis is now killing more people each year than HIV, according to new data from the World Health Organization.
WHO estimates there were almost 10 million new cases of TB last year; the disease caused 1.5 million deaths. By comparison, 1.2 million lives were claimed by HIV.
That makes TB the No. 1 infectious killer.
But dig into the numbers and you'll find some surprises. TB deaths have actually been going down in recent years. The number of deaths from the disease each year has dropped by nearly half since 1990.
HIV deaths, however, are falling far faster.
From
CBS News:
Real-life tractor beam levitates objects using sound waves
It may seem straight out of "Star Trek," but it's real: Scientists have created a sonic "tractor beam" that can pull, push and pirouette objects that levitate in thin air.
The sonic tractor beam relies on a precisely timed sequence of sound waves that create a region of low pressure that traps tiny objects that can then be manipulated solely by sound waves, the scientists said in a new study.
Though the new demonstration was just a proof of concept, the same technique could be adapted to remotely manipulate cells inside the human body or target the release of medicine locked in acoustically activated drug capsules, said study co-author Bruce Drinkwater, a mechanical engineer at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.
From
NBC News:
2022 World Cup Was Supposed to Go to U.S. in Pre-Vote Deal, President Sepp Blatter Says
FIFA leaders struck a secret agreement to award the 2022 World Cup to the United States before the organization even voted, but French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European soccer leaders intervened to blow up the deal, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said in an interview published Wednesday.
The disclosure added more fuel to the corruption scandal that has shaken world soccer to its foundations. English soccer officials, whose federation spent more than $32 million in a failed bid to host the 2018 World Cup, told the BBC they were consulting lawyers about possible legal action.
Blatter — who is among several senior leaders the Fédération Internationale de Football Association has suspended in reaction to the worldwide bribery and racketeering scandal that erupted in May — made the comments in a long interview published by the Russian news agency Tass.
From
Al Jazeera:
Seattle restaurant workers report 'serious problems' despite $15 wage law
Seattle labor activists scored a major win last year when the city became the second in the country to pass a $15 minimum wage law. But working conditions for many local service workers remain poor, in part due to lax enforcement, according to a new survey by a group representing Seattle restaurant employees.
Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC) Seattle — part of ROC United, a national labor group that campaigns on minimum wage issues — found in its survey of 524 Seattle-area restaurant employees that low wages and illegal labor practices persist in the industry, despite the minimum wage law and other legislation meant to improve conditions for low-wage workers.
The survey found that 42.7 percent of respondents earned “poverty wages,” or wages below a threshold the group set at $12.25 per hour. Seattle’s $11 an hour minimum wage will gradually increase to $15 for all employers by 2021.
“Many restaurant jobs in the Seattle area are low-road jobs characterized by few benefits, low wages, and poor workplace conditions,” ROC Seattle said in a statement issued Tuesday. "Our report also unearths a range of serious problems related to the availability of benefits, hiring and promotion practices, workplace discrimination, and job-specific training opportunities."
From
The Atlantic:
The Trope of the Evil Television Bisexual
The 2015 edition of GLAAD’s annual report on the state of minorities on TV mostly looks like progress to anyone who favors casting that reflects humanity’s diversity. About four percent of characters on broadcast primetime programming are identified as LGBT—a percentage that’s in line with what some studies show about the percentage of U.S. population identified as LGBT—and there are more women and more ethnic minorities on TV than ever before.
But larger pools of diverse characters make it easier to spot cliches about those kinds of characters. One observation: It appears that what the website TV Tropes calls “the Depraved Bisexual” is only getting more common. Bisexuality in general on TV is on the rise; among television’s regular and recurring LGBT characters, 28 percent are bisexual. But while gay and lesbian characters on TV increasingly are portrayed in a way that doesn’t make their sexuality into a large and dubious metaphor about their character, bisexuality often is portrayed as going hand-in-hand with moral flexibility. The tropes, as identified by GLAAD:
• bisexual characters who are depicted as untrustworthy, prone to infidelity, and/or lacking a sense of morality;
• characters who use sex as a means of manipulation or who are lacking the ability to form genuine relationships;
• associations with self-destructive behavior;
• and treating a character’s attraction to more than one gender as a temporary plot device that is rarely addressed again.
These characteristics are surprisingly common among male bisexual characters on some of the most buzzed about new shows. GLAAD writes that the list includes “Cyrus Henstridge on E!’s The Royals who last season seduced a member of parliament and then blackmailed him into helping the Queen; Mr. Robot’s Tyrell who sleeps with a male office assistant to install spyware on the man’s phone; and the traitorous Chamberlain Milus Corbett on FX’s The Bastard Executioner, whose sexual liaisons have so far been depicted as a way for him to exert power.” The report also says that bisexual women don’t have it quite so bad, “with characters like Grey’s Anatomy’s Callie and Chasing Life’s Brenna whose sexuality is established as just part of their lives.” (Casey Quinlan had a nuanced look at the topic for The Atlantic in 2013.)
From
Slate:
A Professor Didn’t Think His Students Needed a $180 Textbook. His University Wasn’t Pleased.
The choice of a single textbook for one section of a course at one university might seem like a decidedly local issue. But a dispute over whether an academic department may impose such a selection on all faculty members in a multisection course has set off a large debate over how textbook choices should be evaluated, who should select textbooks, whether price should be a factor, and academic freedom.
These issues came to a head Friday when Alain Bourget, an associate professor of mathematics at California State University–Fullerton, appeared before a faculty grievance committee to challenge a reprimand he received for refusing to use a $180 textbook his department had determined was the only appropriate text for an introductory linear algebra and differential equations course. Instead, he used two textbooks, one of which cost about $75 and other of which consists of free online materials.
Bourget maintains that his choices are just as effective educationally and much less expensive, so he should have the right to use them. But the university says that it makes sense for courses that have multiple sections to all use the same textbooks. Both Bourget and the university say their positions are based on principles of academic freedom.
From
USA Today:
Johnny Cueto dominates Mets, Royals cruise to a 2-0 World Series lead
The relentless Royals offense put together a pair of big innings to turn a close game into a rout and take the first two games of the series at home. Seven of the nine Kansas City starters had at least one hit.
Meanwhile, starter Johnny Cueto held the Mets to a run on two hits through nine innings to earn the win.
The crowd was chanting “John-ny Cue-to” – in a good way – as he took the mound in the ninth. Royals manager Ned Yost said he feeds off the crowd’s energy and that was certainly the case tonight.
Cueto became the first AL pitcher to throw a complete game since Minnesota's Jack Morris in 1991.
From
Salon:
Let there be light: Handwritten draft of King James Bible reveals the secrets of its creation
The King James Bible may well be the greatest work of literature ever written by committee—and now we know a bit more about the collaboration that produced it.
Jeffrey Allen Miller, an English professor at Montclair State University conducting research at Cambridge announced a remarkable discovery last week: “in the archives of Sidney Sussex College there survives now the earliest known draft of any part of the King James Bible, unmistakably in the hand of one of the King James translators.”
The manuscript was written by Samuel Ward, who was 32 when he became one of seven men at Cambridge charged with translating the biblical Apocrypha for inclusion in the edition, and who would eventually became master of Sidney Sussex College until his death in 1643. The material in the manuscript discovered by Miller covers apocryphal books known as Esdras and Wisdom, and it seems to indicate that the process of translation at Cambridge worked differently from what we thought we knew about it. It had long been assumed that the six separate teams, or companies, of translators who were based across Cambridge, Oxford, and London which had been assigned individual sections of the Bible to work on operated more collaboratively on certain sections than individually.
But Ward’s draft seems to indicate that individuals in each company were assigned smaller portions of the biblical sections that that company oversaw, making the whole Bible more of a patchwork of individual labor than a collaborative whole. As Miller explained last week in TLS, “Not only does it profoundly complicate the notion that members of a given company necessarily worked on the translation of each book together as a team; it forces us to think harder about the extent to which all the companies necessarily set about their work in the same or even a similar way.”
From
Bloomberg:
Fed Pivots Toward December Rate Rise Amid Moderate U.S. Growth
Federal Reserve officials pivoted toward a December interest-rate increase, betting that further job gains will lead to higher inflation over time and allow them to close an unprecedented era of near-zero borrowing costs.
The Federal Open Market Committee dropped a reference to global risks and referred to its “next meeting” on Dec. 15-16 as it discussed liftoff timing in a statement released Wednesday in Washington, preparing investors for the first rate rise since 2006.
“The case for a December liftoff continues to build,” said Ward McCarthy, chief financial economist at Jefferies LLC in New York. “Even with the weaker data of late, it is hard to make the case that the economy is still in an emergency” that requires rates near zero.
Yields on two-year Treasuries jumped to around 0.70 percent after the news, from 0.63 percent at 12:30 pm in New York, as the Fed’s hawkish tone caught some investors off-guard. Part of the reason for the surprise was that only last month officials seemed concerned that slowing growth abroad could delay progress toward attaining higher inflation, which Fed-watchers viewed as a warning that liftoff might get pushed into 2016.
From
People:
Inside Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez’s Divorce: Her Alias, His Temper, and Their Race to Court
As Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez gear up for a potential divorce fight, everything from who filed for divorce first to allegations about Martinez's temper could become factors in court.
The couple filed dueling petitions for divorce this week: Berry submitted hers under the alias "Hal Maria" on Monday and Martinez filed his own on Tuesday. On Wednesday, PEOPLE confirms, Berry submitted a second petition – identical to the first but without the use of pseudonyms. Filing separate petitions could be a play to gain an upper hand if the case moves to court, a legal expert says.
"For tactical reasons, some attorneys want to file first because if you’re the petitioner and the case proceeds to trial, you get to put on the case first," Robert Brandt, a family law specialist in California, tells PEOPLE. "It gives you that advantage."
A source close to Berry says she had other motivations. "She filed first, but she didn't draw attention to it," the source says. "Halle filed under fake names to protect both them and their kids."
From
TMZ:
TAYLOR SWIFT COUNTERSUES RADIO DJ ... You Grabbed My Ass, Now You're Gonna Pay
Taylor Swift just laid down the law ... nobody grabs her ass and gets away with it ... because she just countersued a radio DJ who claims she falsified a story about getting groped.
According to the docs ... Swift says she's 100% sure David Mueller lifted her skirt and grabbed her butt in 2013 at a backstage photo op for her Denver concert.
As we previously reported ... Mueller initially sued Swift ... claiming he was fired from his radio gig after the singer claimed the radio jock groped her.
Mueller now claims the assault was carried out by another guy ... but in her docs, Taylor insists Mueller was the one who got handsy, leaving the singer, "surprised, upset, offended, and alarmed."
Taylor's asking for damages to be assessed by a jury, and says she'll be donating any money she wins to women's charities.
From
Variety:
Why Yahoo’s Foray Into Original TV Series Failed
Yahoo has flunked out of Greendale Community College. Its failure to forge a business from the revival of Dan Harmon’s cult comedy “Community” and two other scripted series is emblematic of the once-mighty Internet company’s muddled biz strategy overall.
The botched run at programming at primetime-level costs, which was supposed to draw on marketers’ TV budgets to reach Yahoo’s billion-user global base, is another black eye for CEO Marissa Mayer. While investors aren’t clamoring for her head yet, the clock is ticking for Yahoo to prove its ability to grow profitably.
Mayer and chief marketing officer Kathy Savitt — the lieutenant who oversaw Yahoo’s content efforts until quitting last month to join independent studio STX Entertainment — had ballyhooed “Community” as anchoring a bold new premium-content strategy to round out its live and short-form video pillars.
But viewers, and the ad bucks to support the shows, weren’t materializing at the pace Yahoo had hoped, especially considering the seven-year horizon laid out to recoup the cost of the productions. On its third-quarter earnings call last week, the company revealed that it took a $42 million write-down on “Community,” basketball comedy “Sin City Saints” and “Other Space,” a sci-fi spoof from Paul Feig.
From
The Hollywood Reporter:
Box-Office Preview: Halloween Forecast Bleak for 'Our Brand Is Crisis'
Cooper's 'Burnt' and 'Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse' also debut, but all three films could see 'The Martian' stay docked at No. 1 in its fifth outing as the late October box office blues continue.
The Halloween forecast is looking gloomy for David Gordon Green's adult-skewing dramedy Our Brand Is Crisis, starring Sandra Bullock and Billy Bob Thornton as rival political consultant trying to influence the 2002 Bolivian presidential election.
Our Brand Is Crisis is tracking to open in the $6 million to $7 million range. That would mark one of the lowest starts of Bullock's career. Her last live-action film, Gravity, was a global blockbuster, earning $732.2 million for Warner Bros. following its release in October 2013.
As such, Hollywood is braced for another tough weekend at the box office. Last weekend no fewer than four new offerings bombed.
From
/Film:
‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2′ Casts ‘Oldboy’ Actress; Matthew McConaughey Passes on Villain Role
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has had its core cast locked in for some time now, because they’re all the same people from the first film: Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax, Bradley Cooper as Rocket, and Vin Diesel as Groot. But now it’s finally made its first new addition.
Relative unknown Pom Klementieff has just boarded Marvel’s upcoming outer space adventure, to be directed once again by James Gunn ... THR broke news of the Guardians of the Galaxy Pom Klementieff casting. Her character has not been revealed, although THR describes it as a “key role.” The trade additionally notes that Klementieff won the role after several chemistry reads, following Marvel’s wide-ranging search for a specifically Asian actress. (Klementieff, according to Wikipedia, is half-Korean.) ... Apparently, Marvel wanted Matthew McConaughey to play the villain, but he opted to pass. Whom do you think he could have played?
From the
A.V. Club:
Is Stephen King justified in hating Kubrick’s vision for The Shining?
Stephen King is one of the most frequently adapted authors of all time, with a staggering 199 credits to his name on IMDB—a number little inflated by repeat adaptations the way Shakespeare and Dickens benefit from the endless Romeo And Juliets and Christmas Carols. Filmmakers love him, and understandably so. His stories aren’t just commercially friendly, but are well constructed and start with great hooks. He may traffic in monsters, but the horror is founded in the real world and grounded in memorable characters, making them far richer than run-of-the-mill slashers or creature features.
Nevertheless, there’s a huge disconnect between how movie-friendly his stories are and how audience-friendly those movies end up being. Of those nearly 200 filmed works, only a handful are worth watching. When mediocrities like 1408 somehow wind up on the stronger end of the scale, you can imagine how bad the worst King adaptations are. Or, you can just watch Maximum Overdrive, directed by King himself ... As has been noted, dramatic King films have a better track record than horror ones. Still, the best King adaptation isn’t merely horror, but one of the scariest and most acclaimed horror films of all time: Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Its mark on pop culture has been indelible, from “all work and no play” to the visuals of cascading elevator blood and creepy-as-hell twin girls. Its iconic scenes have been the subject of endless parody and homage, and it has been analyzed with enough rigor to provide the backbone for an acclaimed documentary that explores far-fetched fan theories. It is a masterpiece of dread and atmosphere, and one of the best examples of Kubrick’s mastery of mood.
There is a notable holdout to the acclaim, however: Stephen King himself. The author famously hates Kubrick’s take on his story of the haunted Overlook Hotel and the Torrance family who spend a ghastly season there. “Too cold,” he described it to The Paris Review, “no sense of emotional investment in the family whatsoever on [Kubrick’s] part.” He does express admiration for the film’s visuals—how could you not?—describing it as “a Cadillac with no engine in it” because “you can’t do anything with it except admire it as sculpture.”
Though King’s not wrong in his analysis, it’s likely his connection to the material clouds his view of the film’s quality. (Rolling Stone asked whether it was possible Kubrick made a great film that also happens to be a bad adaptation. King’s response: “No.”)
From
Cosmo:
Movies With Female Leads Make Way More Money Than Movies With Male Leads
When a movie comes out with a female main character, it's always treated like a unique, special snowflake compared to the usual dude-friendly blockbusters. But there's solid evidence that it should be the other way around. Mic crunched the numbers to figure out exactly how much movies make when they're about men or women, and the result might make Hollywood plan for Pitch Perfect 23.
Using Box Office Mojo, they figured out the domestic box office gross from the top 25 movies from each year from 2006 to this week in 2015. They then figured out if the movie was about a man or about a woman, and cut films that were mixed-gender ensembles, about objects (like Transformers), or about a man and a woman equally, so they were left with 133 movies.
And the result was pretty shocking: Since 2006, movies about men have made an average of $80.6 million, while the average movie about women have made an average of $121.6 million. And female-led movies made more on average than male-led ones for nearly every year Mic measured. Thank movies like The Hunger Games, Gravity, and Frozen for that. Though keep in mind that this chart only measures domestic box office, and dude-heavy superhero movies bring in serious bank overseas.