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Two things can be true at once: it’s absolutely true that “Armageddon” was the bigger movie, and the movie that has had a longer lifespan. It’s also true that “Deep Impact” was a big success, and one that was directed by a woman at a time when that simply wasn’t happening all that often. Heck, Leder had the highest opening weekend ever for a female director until “Twilight” came along. That being the case, what happened after was the real crime and the real lesson here.
Leder directed “Pay It Forward,” which bombed, and was pretty much put in director’s jail for years. Bay followed his hit up with a high-profile flop in the form of “Pearl Harbor” and it didn’t hurt his career one bit. “Not very many men make $350 million pictures,” Leder said at the time in Variety. “So it’s not about being a good woman director. I want to be recognized as a good director, period.”
Eventually, Leder would be recognized as a great director, largely through her work in television on shows such as “The Leftovers” and “The Morning Show.” Yet, she didn’t make another movie until 2018’s “On the Basis of Sex,” nearly 20 years later. “‘Deep Impact’ made $350 million worldwide in 1998 when tickets were $8. On a non-holiday weekend, it made $41 million. It was huge. Then ‘Pay It Forward’ bombed and the scripts stopped coming. It was a very difficult time,” Leder said speaking with the Director’s Guild of America in 2013.
Luckily, Leder’s talents have not gone to waste, but the fact that she had to wait so long to get another chance at a feature doesn’t add up when directors who are men can suffer a flop and get right back in the saddle. I’m not saying “Deep Impact” was necessarily as impactful as “Armageddon,” but a hit is a hit, and talent is talent. Leder should have been treated with the level of respect that comes with such success.
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