Women Directed Just 16% of 2024’s Top 250 Grossing Movies; New Report Faults Hollywood for Lack of Progress
variety.comBrent Lang Executive Editor From thrillers like “Babygirl” and “Love Lies Bleeding” to genre-bending horror flicks like “The Substance” to inspirational sports dramas like “The Fire Inside,” women directed some of last year’s most audacious and acclaimed films.
However, those female filmmakers remained the exception, not the rule. Women accounted for just 16% of directors working on the 250 highest-grossing domestic releases, according to new research from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.
That was even with the percentage of films directed by women in 2023. And the situation didn’t improve as you climb up the box office chart — women directed just 11% of the 100 most popular films, down three percentage points from 2023.
Some of these films, such as Rachel Morrison’s “The Fire Inside,” were released at the end of 2024 and have yet to finalize their box office tally, while others such as Anna Kendrick’s streaming hit “Woman of the Hour” weren’t released in theaters and thus aren’t reflected in San Diego State University’s research.
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