Among Top-Grossing Films, a Big First for the Ladies

For the first time in recent history, the percentage of top-grossing films featuring female protagonists equaled the percentage of films with male protagonists, according to a pair of annual studies released Tuesday. Movies like Wicked, Inside Out 2, and The Substance lifted Hollywood's theatrical releases to gender parity in leading roles in 2024.

• Of the 100 top domestic grossing films in 2024, 42% had female protagonists, while 42% had male protagonists, per a report from the Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film at San Diego State University.

• The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative (AII), which also released its annual study on Tuesday, found that 54% of the top 100 films at the box office in 2024 featured girls and women as protagonists, per the AP. That's a massive jump from just the year prior, when 30% of films featured women in lead roles. In 2007, when the USC annual study began, that figure was just 20%.
• The percentage of female characters in speaking roles saw a more modest increase, from 35% to 37% in 2024, according to the San Diego State study. Major female characters rose from 38% in 2023 to 39% in 2024.
• Universal Studios, led by Donna Langley, was the studio with the best record for female representation. In 2024, 66.7% of Universal releases centered on girls and women, per the AII.
• "Films such as The Substance pushed back hard against a culture that considers women disposable," said Martha Lauzen, director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film. "This is the first time we can say that gender equality has been reached in top-grossing films," added AII founder Stacy L. Smith. "We have always known that female-identified leads would make money. This is not the result of an economic awakening but is due to a number of different constituencies and efforts—at advocacy groups, at studios, through DEI initiatives—to assert the need for equality on screen."

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