Women equal men for first time in highest-grossing films of 2024

nme.com:

It’s A Man’s (Celluloid) World report, which states 42 per cent of the 100 top-grossing movies in the US had female protagonists – such as The Substance and Wicked – while another 42 per cent had male leads.

16 per cent, meanwhile, had ensemble casts.For the purpose of Dr. Lauzen’s study, which has been running for over 20 years, protagonists are the characters from whose perspective the story is told.2024 saw a noticeable change from the previous year, which saw only 28 per cent of the top-grossing films having female protagonists.

In 2022, it was 33 per cent, and in 2021 31 per cent.As the percentages are taken from a relatively small sample size – just 100 movies – it’s unsurprising to see them fluctuate each year.

However, the percentages for all speaking characters and major female characters are calculated from over 2,000 characters, so they’re more stable.In 2024, 37 per cent of characters in speaking roles were female, an increase from 35 per cent in 2023.