More stories with powerful female heroes—this was a rallying cry among the progressive ‘overlords’ of Hollywood for a long time.
This trend gave us, among others, a number of ‘gender swapped’ films. One of which was Ocean’s 8 from 2018, with eight female leads starring in the Ocean’s heist movie series. That project ended up becoming quite a box office success, grossing nearly $300 million against a budget of $70 million. Contrast that to Ghostbusters 2016. The classic supernatural comedy film from 1984 was remade, and the all-male main cast was replaced with an all-female one. The massive advertising budget to counter the online backlash could not save the film: it grossed $229 million, while just the production (excluding marketing) cost $144 million, leaving the studio with a massive loss.
Ella McCay, director James L Brooks’s 2025 flick about a young woman suddenly becoming governor of an unspecified state, certainly falls on the Ghostbusters, and not the Ocean’s 8 end of that spectrum.
In fact, Ella McCay makes Ghostbusters 2016 look like Avengers: Endgame in terms of box office performance. Since its 12 December 2025 release, it has generated just $4.5 million in revenue. This prompted its distributor, Walt Disney Studios subsidiary 20th Century Studios, to cancel its international premiere in France, originally planned for January 2026.
The film had a respectable $35 million production budget, which allowed the studio to get marquee names on board, such as Woody Harrelson, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Emma Mackey in the titular role. Meanwhile, one of the biggest names in the industry, Hans Zimmer, provided the score.
The cast and crew—perhaps learning from the disaster that was Disney’s Snow White release earlier this year—were wise enough to avoid moral grandstanding about women in politics in the lead-up to the premiere. However, the plot leaves no doubt about how the filmmakers view the two genders’ roles in society.
The protagonist initially serves as the lieutenant governor of her state, when her male governor serving above her leaves his term prematurely to pursue a more lucrative position in the incoming presidential administration. That plot point is the only subtle hint at male immorality. After Ella McCay assumes the office of governor, she is undermined—and eventually pushed out of office—by the evil scheme of her husband, who feels let down by not getting a post in her administration. She spends her little time in office to push through additional welfare payments to young and expecting mothers. Evidently, she has to agree to resign first to get her legislation passed by the unscrupulous men in the state legislature.
Meanwhile, our female hero reconnects with her deadbeat, cheating father; and takes time to help out her socially awkward, eccentric brother as well.
The studio seems to have realized early on that the political theme is not working with audiences: in the official trailer, the fact that the main character is the governor of a state only gets a brief mention. Instead, it focuses on the family angle of the film. This likely led a big chunk of the film’s small audience to be surprised to find out that the story is actually all about politics….
But what was perhaps the biggest mistake by Disney in the production of their new Ella McCay movie? Not casting Rachel Zegler in the main role!
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