Audiences like female movies
AND NOW, for a revelation that probably shouldn’t be a revelation: audiences like movies starring women and will show up and pay money to see them. A new study has found that films starring women do better at box offices worldwide, despite how the film industry continues to favour men.
The study, a joint effort between Creative Arts Agency (CAA) and tech company shift7, looked at the 350 highestgrossing US films released between January 2014 and December 2017 and found that films with women billed as the lead actor made more money – blockbusters and low-budget movies alike.
“Women comprise half the box office, yet there has been an assumption in the industry that female-led films were generally less successful,” said CAA agent Christy Haubegger, who assisted in the study. “We found data that does not support that assumption.”
The partnership for the study came through Time’s Up, an organisation working to fight sexual harassment and inequality in Hollywood. The study included films with budgets of under $10 million to above $100m. Films qualified as femaleled if a woman was listed first in promotional materials, billing blocks and credits. Of the 350 films in the study, 105 were led by women.
The reckoning of #MeToo and Time’s Up have elicited demands for change in an industry marked by sexism, racism and inequality. But despite public promises to improve representation, and the success of films like Black Panther and Crazy Rich Asians, which broke box office records with minority-led casts, the status quo remains. A study from San Diego State University found that the number of female protagonists in the top-performing 100 films fell 5% in 2017. | The Washington Post