CHRISTIAN TOTO: Why Woke Gender Swap Remakes Are a Bad Bet.

The original 2000 comedy “What Women Want” earned a spectacular $182 million. The gender swap remake, starring Taraji P. Henson in the Mel Gibson role, generated just $54 million earlier this year.

Last year’s “Overboard” remake, which gave Anna Faris the Kurt Russell role from the chipper 1987 comedy, scored $50 million domestically. It helped that the film’s budget came in at a trim $12 million. It’s still far from a smash. Some of its box office might likely came from popular Mexican star Eugenio Derbez.

This past weekend, the ghost of “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” did little to stop the “Avengers: Endgame” juggernaut. “The Hustle,” a very faithful remake of the 1988 Frank Oz comedy, cast Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson in place of Michael Caine and Steve Martin.

The results? A modest $13 million for its opening weekend. The original only made $42 million, but it’s become a beloved con caper. The remake mostly played down the feminist angle, but that didn’t save it from some scathing reviews.

For every remake, reboot, or gender-flip re-do, how many quality original scripts get passed over because they don’t have a “brand?”