For the first time in 2024, the majority of major movies featured female protagonists. However, the representation of racial minorities did not see significant improvement at the same time.
For the first time, over half of the top-grossing movies of 2024 featured a female leading or co-leading character, as stated in a report published on Tuesday.
The University of Southern California's USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative discovered that 54% of the top 100 box office movies included women and girls as main characters.
This represents a significant jump from the 30% reported in 2023 and the mere 20% in 2007 when the USC annual report started.
Female actors are leading the way at the box office.
"This is the first time we can confirm that gender equality has been achieved in top-grossing films," Stacy L. Smith, founder of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, stated.
"In 2024, three of the top five movies had a girl or woman in a leading role, with five of the top 10 movies also featuring a female lead, including the number one film of the year, Disney's 'Inside Out 2,'" added Smith.
Notable major films with leading female protagonists in the year 2024 include "Wicked" starring Cynthia Erivo, "The Substance" featuring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, and "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" with Anya Taylor-Joy.
While there was a difference in the studios' approaches, women were featured in the leading roles in 66.7% of the films released by Universal Studios, whereas Sony Pictures Entertainment had women in leading roles in 38.5% of their movies.
We've long understood that female-led films can generate revenue. This is not a recent economic realization, but rather a culmination of various advocacy efforts, initiatives, and groups pushing for greater representation and equality on screen,
Hollywood's depiction of minorities remains underrepresented.
Despite a rise in women in leading positions, a separate report by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, also released on Tuesday, found that the proportion of female characters in speaking roles rose from 35% to just 37% in 2024.
The University of Southern California report also discovered that gender diversity was not accompanied by racial diversity.
It was discovered that only 25 of the top 100 movies featured a person of color in the leading role, a decrease from 37 in 2023. No production company came close to representing proportionally the 41.6% of the US population that are people of color, as per the census data.
"While this year's findings mark a historic step towards proportional representation for women, there is still a significant amount of work to be done for women of color," Katherine Neff, the lead author of the USC study, said.
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