WOMEN N THE FILM INDUSTRY

The 95th Academy Awards are in Los Angeles today and it’s Women’s History Month. Here are some statistics on women’s employment in the movie business, both in front of and behind the cameras.

Domestic box office grosses rebounded from 2021’s cellar year, with blockbuster films such as “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Jurassic World: Dominion.” But they have yet to reach pre-pandemic levels.

Behind the camera

Martha M. Lauzen, PH.D, has been tracking employment in the movie business for 25 years and released the “Celluloid Ceiling” report released in January. The report looks at how women have fared in top 100 and 250 grossing films in the U.S. This report does not include women’s employment in feature-length films released by streaming services. There will be another report covering those details.

In front of the camera

Martha M. Lauzen PH.D released the report “It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World: Portrayals of Female Characters in the Top Grossing U.S. Films of 2022” Tuesday. The yearly report has monitored portrayals of girls and women in the top 100 domestic grossing films since 2002. It is the longest-running and most comprehensive study of women’s representation in film available. The report has analysis of more than 2,100 characters appearing in films in 2022 and characters appearing in more than 1,200 films in the last two decades.

Protagonists

The percentage of U.S. top grossing films featuring female protagonists increased slightly from 31% in 2021 to 33% (33.3%) in 2022. Protagonists are the characters from whose perspective the story is told.