Breaking barriers: Hollywood’s 2024 top films are led by women

Are women taking over Hollywood? A new report shows that women are playing key roles in many of the most successful films of 2024. 

In fact, nearly 54% of the top 100 highest-grossing films this year had women in leading roles. 

This is a major increase compared to just 30% last year, and researchers are calling this a historic change.

This study, conducted by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, has been tracking trends in film since 2007. 

Back then, only about 20% of successful films featured women in leading roles. The report shows how far things have come in just a few years.

Stacy L. Smith, a researcher at the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, said, 

"For the first time, we can confidently say that gender equality has been achieved in commercially successful films." 

She also pointed out that in 2024, three out of the top five highest-grossing films and five out of the top ten films featured female leads. That’s a huge milestone.

One example of this is Disney’s Inside Out 2, which has a teenage girl as the main character. 

Other films with female leads include Wicked starring Cynthia Erivo, Substance with Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga led by Anya Taylor-Joy.

But Gender Equality in Hollywood Studios Still Has a Long Way to Go

While these results are encouraging, gender inequality in Hollywood studios remains a challenge. 

Universal Studios had women in lead roles in 66.7% of their films, but Sony Pictures Entertainment had a much lower percentage at 38.5%.

Stacy L. Smith also mentioned, 

"We knew female-led films would be successful. But this progress didn’t happen overnight. There’s been a lot of hard work behind the scenes, including from advocacy groups and DEI initiatives, that have made this possible."

Racial Diversity Still Lagging Behind

Even though more women are getting lead roles in films, the racial representation in these films hasn’t improved as much. 

Another report from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University found that speaking roles for women in 2024 dropped from 35% to just 27%.

The USC report also highlighted that, while gender equality has improved, racial inequality hasn’t changed much at all. 

In fact, the percentage of films with lead characters from non-white backgrounds has decreased from 37% in 2023 to just 25% in 2024. 

This is despite the fact that 41.6% of the U.S. population is non-white.

Catherine Neff, the lead researcher for the USC report, said, 

"While we’ve made strides in gender equality this year, there’s still a lot of work to do when it comes to bringing non-white women to the forefront of Hollywood films."

It’s clear that Hollywood is making progress when it comes to gender representation, but the work isn’t done yet. 

Female-led films are thriving, and this could be a turning point for the industry. 

However, the struggle for racial equality in film still remains an area that needs much more attention.