Last year, the percentage of top-grossing films with female protagonists matched the percentage of top-grossing films with male protagonists for the first time in recent history.
This is according to the new instalment of Dr. Martha Lauzen’s annual It’s A Man’s (Celluloid) World report, which states 42 per cent of the 100 top-grossing movies in the US had female protagonists – such as The Substance and Wicked – while another 42 per cent had male leads. 16 per cent, meanwhile, had ensemble casts.
For the purpose of Dr. Lauzen’s study, which has been running for over 20 years, protagonists are the characters from whose perspective the story is told.
2024 saw a noticeable change from the previous year, which saw only 28 per cent of the top-grossing films having female protagonists. In 2022, it was 33 per cent, and in 2021 31 per cent.
As the percentages are taken from a relatively small sample size – just 100 movies – it’s unsurprising to see them fluctuate each year. However, the percentages for all speaking characters and major female characters are calculated from over 2,000 characters, so they’re more stable.
In 2024, 37 per cent of characters in speaking roles were female, an increase from 35 per cent in 2023. Meanwhile, 39 per cent of major characters were female, a slight increase from 38 per cent the year before.
Dr. Lauzen, the founder and executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, said: “2024 offered one of the richest slates of films featuring female protagonists in recent memory. These fictional women railed against unsatisfying personal relationships and discriminatory work environments. Films such as The Substance pushed back hard against a culture that considers women disposable.
“While the number of films with female protagonists rose to a historic high in 2024 after a dismally lean 2023, the percentages of women in the more stable categories of major and speaking roles reflected only minor gains.”
She explained, too, that men tend to get a larger percentage of roles as the ages of characters increase, describing lead roles like that of Demi Moore in The Substance as exceptions to the rule.
She continued: “Age is a foundational characteristic. If we limit the age of female characters on screen, we limit the kinds of experiences and lives we see them live. Our films largely fail to take advantage of the depth of character that comes from women’s lived experiences and the added dramatic push characters confront when they know they’re in their third act.”
Nicole Kidman, who starred alongside Harris Dickinson in the 2024 erotic thriller Babygirl, called out Martin Scorsese for not making enough films about women in November. Kidman, 57, told Vanity Fair that she’d like to work with the iconic director, “If he does a film with women.”
Meanwhile, a study last month revealed that just 13.4 per cent of 2024’s top-grossing movies were directed by women – albeit a slight improvement on 2023’s 12.1 per cent. Of the 112 directors analysed in the research, just 15 were women.
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