As Marvel continues to plan which superheroes will get movies, one of the consistent questions that has been raised throughout is why there hasn't been a Black Widow film.

For years, Hollywood has had a mentality that female-oriented movies don't make money, and as a result, there has been a lack of good female roles in blockbusters.

Recently, Hollywood's theory has been debunked by the success of films dominated by female characters.

In 2013, Jessica Chastain topped the box office two weekends in a row with her films "Mama" and "Zero Dark Thirty." While the actress has not headlined a feature at the box office in one year, she proved that women were capable of selling a war film and a horror film.

Similarly, Jennifer Lawrence headlined the first big franchise dominated by a woman. "The Hunger Games" has proven extremely successful for Lionsgate as the second installment, "Catching Fire", was the No. 1 film of 2013 while the first film was the No. 3 movie behind juggernaut franchises "The Avengers" and "The Dark Knight Rises."

In 2013, Cate Blanchett made headlines with her film "Blue Jasmine." The feature, which was dominated by woman characters, not only became one of the indie breakouts of the year, but it also became specialty distributor Sony Pictures Classics' third-highest grossing feature.

The actress later reminded Hollywood in her Oscar acceptance speech that female films actually sell. She stated, "And thank you to ... those of us in the industry who are still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films, with women at the center, are niche experiences. They are not -- audiences want to see them and, in fact, they earn money. The world is round, people."

This past year alone has proven that audience's tendencies are changing. Angelina Jolie has led a number of box office hits in action films. However, this year she headlined a Disney feature: "Maleficent." Not only did the film beat out the male-oriented western comedy "A Million Ways to Die in the West" but it also became one of the highest-grossing films of the summer, beating out "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," "Godzilla" and "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes."

Shailene Woodley also had a breakout year leading the new franchise "Divergent" to No. 1 back in March. Then, in June, her feature "The Fault in Our Stars" topped the box office, beating out the Tom Cruise starrer "Edge of Tomorrow."

But the big story of the year has been Scarlett Johansson. While her films "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and "Chef" were successful, it was "Lucy" and "Under the Skin" which proved the actress's selling power.

"Under the Skin" wasn't expected to make millions due to its experimental nature and its indie roots. However, the film made a solid $2.6 million.

Then "Lucy" proved a powerhouse in July. The film opened ahead of Dwayne Johnson's "Hercules" and has gone on to make $121 million up to this point.  

Johansson had never headlined an action film in her career. As a matter of fact, the actress has usually appeared in supporting roles in mega blockbusters such as "Iron Man 2" and "The Spirit." In smaller pictures, she had also been in supporting roles or lead roles that were not about her character.

With this year's past results, Johansson can assure Marvel that a Black Widow movie is likely to sell and make a lot of money.

However, the studio has yet to announce plans. At this point it has plans for a "Dr. Strange" feature, "Ant-Man," another Captain America flick, one more Thor picture, and a third Avengers movie. 

Marvel president Kevin Feige has not disqualified the idea, but has been extremely evasive regarding the subject.

Regarding a Black Widow movie, he stated:

"I think it comes down to timing, which is what I've sort of always said, and it comes down to us being able to tell the right story. I hope we do it sooner rather than later ... But we find ourselves in the very strange position of managing more franchises than most people have -- which is a very, very good thing and we don't take for granted, but is a challenging thing. You may notice from those release dates, we have three for 2017. And that's because just the timing worked on what was sort of gearing up. But it does mean you have to put one franchise on hold for three or four years in order to introduce a new one? I don't know. Those are the kinds of chess matches we're playing right now." 

Marvel may be scared of the film possibly of "Black Widow" flopping. After all, when Fox made "Elektra" with Jennifer Garner and Paramount made "Aeon Flux" with Charlize Theron, both of those superhero films flopped. However, they were plagued with terrible reviews and a lack of marketing.  

Marvel has been very solid with their Avengers movies and if, they continue to produce solid scripts, a Black Widow movie could be just as good.

While Feige and his team figure out when a Black Widow movie will come out, Lionsgate will continue the trend that female action heroes sell with the upcoming "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1" and "Insurgent."

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