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It’s no little secret that Hollywood — like most every facet of society — has been and continues to be a man’s world first and foremost. All the love to the gonzo Schwarzenegger outings of yore, but there’s something to be said about Hollywood’s longtime failure to consistently tell stories from outside the male perspective.
But change has dared to rear its head this past year. Per Deadline, 2024 marks the first time in recent (and almost certainly recorded) history that female-led films matched the percentage of male-led films among the top domestic grossing flicks of the year.
Indeed, of the top 100 highest-grossing domestic films of 2024, male- and female-led films both came in at 42% of the share, with ensemble casts making up the remaining 16%.
Moreover, three of the top five highest-grossing domestic films of 2024 were led by women. Inside Out 2 — Pixar’s beloved odyssey about feelings that have feelings — boasted the highest domestic gross of the year, and happened to have a voice cast led by Amy Schumer. Auliʻi Cravalho’s Moana 2, meanwhile, had the third highest domestic gross of the year. Finally, Wicked‘s double-threat of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande helped it nab fifth place on the domestic gross chart, and also become the highest grossing live-action film led by women.
Other prominent contributors to this achievement in cinematic gender parity were the Anya Taylor-Joy-led Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the Cailee Spaeny sci-fi vehicle Alien: Romulus, A24’s Kirsten Dunst-enabled Civil War, and Challengers, the latest in what will hopefully be a long line of Zendaya’s leading lady efforts.
Elsewhere, The Substance and Anora (starring Demi Moore and Mikey Madison, respectively) joined Wicked in representing the awards season royalty among this crowd of history-making female-led films. Speaking of The Substance — in which Moore’s protagonist finds herself in a debilitating personal war with her age — there exists another element to the status of women’s representation in film that proves work still needs to be done.
The study from Dr. Martha Lauzen’s annual report on the subject (titled It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World and sourced by Deadline) suggests that, of the female characters with speaking roles in the highest-grossing domestic films of 2024, the majority of them are in their 20s and 30s; 23% in their 20s and 35% in their 30s.
These numbers drop significantly for women 40 and over, going down to 16% from the 35% of speaking roles for women in their 30s. Speaking roles for male characters, meanwhile, increase with that age range, going up to 31% for male characters in their 40s from the 25% of men in their 30s.
Speaking roles decay slower with the age of male characters, too. Sixteen percent of male speaking roles consist of characters in their 50s, while just 6% of speaking roles comprise women in their 50s. Men in their 60s, meanwhile, have 9% of the speaking roles, while women have just 5%.
This, despite the likes of The Substance, The Last Showgirl (starring Pamela Anderson), and the June Squibb-led Thelma capturing more than their fair share of hearts this past year. Surprise, surprise; the depth of experience inherent to older women makes for some pretty fantastic storytelling material. We ought to honor that more diligently going forward.