This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Summer movies are usually a playground for men and boys — as the two main genres, action movies and comedies, are led by male characters and pitched toward male viewers.

This summer, there are signs that Hollywood is slowly starting to level the playing field — by slotting major blockbuster action movies and raunchy comedies where women are front and center.

As always with Hollywood, it's less an issue of social reform and more about following the money. Consider some statistics:

• The two top-grossing movies of 2016 — "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" and "Finding Dory" — featured female protagonists. Six other movies with one or several women in the lead scored at least $100 million in North America: "Zootopia," "Moana," "Hidden Figures," "Ghostbusters," "Bad Moms" and "Arrival."

• In 2016, according to one survey, women were the majority of the audience for three of the five top-grossing movies: "Finding Dory," "The Secret Life of Pets" and "The Jungle Book."

• Of the nine Best Picture Oscar nominees, two ("Arrival" and "Hidden Figures") had a woman or women in the lead, and two others ("Fences" and "La La Land") had female characters co-equal with male characters.

• The numbers are still terrible behind the camera, with only 7 percent of the 250 top-grossing movies in 2016 directed by women, according to a study from San Diego State University.

Among the expected highlights of this movie summer will be three female-centered action blockbusters, three established franchises putting women in leading roles, a trio of female-led raunch comedies and some other surprises. Of course, the summer is also bringing back "Baywatch," so it's not as if sexism has been defeated once and for all.

One of the summer's most-anticipated action movies is "Wonder Woman" (opening June 2), the landmark DC Comics title — and Warner Bros.' biggest attempt to build a franchise to rival to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

With Patty Jenkins directing, "Wonder Woman" stars Israeli actor Gal Gadot (formerly of the "Fast & Furious" franchise) as the Amazonian warrior princess Diana. Her idyllic life on Paradise Island is interrupted by the arrival of a man from the outside: a military pilot, Steve Trevor (Chris Pine). Diana follows Trevor to see the messy outside world, specifically London during World War I, where she uses her powers to fight against the Germans.

Universal's attempt to turn its classic monsters into a thematic universe of films kicks off with "The Mummy" (June 9). This modern version, directed by Alex Kurtzman (who co-wrote "Transformers" and "Star Trek"), comes with a gender flip: The title monster is the evil spirit of an ancient princess (played by Sofia Boutella, from "Star Trek Beyond"), and the "damsel" she aims to enslave is played by Tom Cruise.

"Playing a monster was really interesting to me," Boutella told theater owners at their convention, CinemaCon, in Las Vegas in March. "There's always a monster in us, whether you choose to use it or not."

Later this summer, Charlize Theron takes charge in "Atomic Blonde" (July 28), a sexy spy thriller based on a graphic novel. The movie — especially an extended single-shot fight scene that begins in a stairwell and ends in a car — generated plenty of excitement when it premiered at SXSW in Austin in March.

The movie is set in East Berlin, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, with Theron as an undercover MI6 agent investigating another agent's death and trying to recover a missing list of double agents.

"We tried to turn the spy thriller on its head and make it punk rock," director David Leitch ("John Wick") told CinemaCon attendees. He described the setting as "this kind of rogue world where spies have gone completely feral."

Theron trained in martial arts for the gritty fight scenes. "It had to look real and had to look like my life depended on it," she said. How real? Theron said she broke a tooth while shooting. "I'm going in for my fourth root canal. Thanks, David."

Established franchises are returning with women in prominent roles.

Katherine Waterston ("Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them") leads the crew of a colony ship that discovers some familiar creatures in "Alien: Covenant" (May 19).

Kaya Scodelario ("The Maze Runner") matches wits with Johnny Depp's Capt. Jack Sparrow in "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" (May 26). Her character, Carina Smyth, is easily the strongest female character in the franchise's history — an astronomer who uses her brains to find a treasure sought by a ghostly sea captain (Javier Bardem) and an obsessed young sailor (Brenton Thwaites).

"Transformers: The Last Knight" (June 23), the fifth installment in the toy-based action series, puts newcomer Isabela Moner in a pivotal role. And, because Moner was 14 at the time of filming, she's the first female in a "Transformers" movie that director Michael Bay hasn't put in a push-up bra. (British actor Laura Haddock, alas, does not dodge that fate.)

Director Luc Besson — famous for such female-led action movies as "La Femme Nikita" and "Lucy" — gives Cara Delevingne's Laureline equal footing with Dane DeHaan's title character in the sci-fi adventure "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" (July 21).

"Valerian" is based on a long-beloved French comic book, one that many believe inspired the look of "Star Wars." It's a title Besson has been obsessed with since he was 10.

"Laureline was the first girl superhero," he said. "I was in love."

Director Sofia Coppola was born the year the 1971 psychological thriller "The Beguiled" was released. But the story, of a Union soldier (Clint Eastwood) trapped in a Confederate girls' boarding school, stuck with her.

"The movie stayed in my mind," Coppola said at CinemaCon. "I thought, 'I would love to tell the story from the women's point of view.' "

Coppola's version of "The Beguiled" (June 23) casts Colin Farrell as the Union soldier and Nicole Kidman as the school's headmistress, with Elle Fanning and Kirsten Dunst also in the cast.

Meanwhile, inspired by the success of "Bad Moms," studios are serving up more raunchy comedies with a female perspective. In "Snatched" (May 12), Goldie Hawn and Amy Schumer play a mother and daughter who are kidnapped while on a South American vacation.

A bride-to-be (Scarlett Johansson) and her college friends (Zoë Kravitz, Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell and "Broad City's" Ilana Glazer) gather for a bachelorette party that takes some dark turns in "Rough Night" (June 16). And four friends (Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, Regina Hall and Tiffany Haddish) gather for debauchery and bonding in New Orleans in "Girls Trip" (July 21).

As Latifah told CinemaCon: "Women really do let loose and have a good time, and often a lot more raucous than you believe." Maybe Hollywood is finally getting the message.

movies@sltrib.com

Twitter: @moviecricket