Posted on 02/22/2018 10:36:41 AM PST by EdnaMode
Rey, Diana Prince, and Belle may have anchored some of the biggest box office hits of 2017, but they were the exception to the rule. Hollywood’s glass ceiling remained firmly in place as studios failed to back female-dominated movies last year, according to a new study by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.
In 2017, just 24% of protagonists in the 100 highest grossing films were women. That was a drop of five percentage points from 29% in 2016. The decline comes as a surprise given that the three most popular films last year, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and “Wonder Woman,” all had female lead characters. “Wonder Woman” also happened to be the first major studio comic book movie about a female superhero and boasted a female director in Patty Jenkins. Other hit movies such as “Girls Trip,” “Fifty Shades Darker,” and “The Post” also offered meaty roles for women, and Oscar pundits noted that the best actress category in 2017 was filled with more worthy candidates than the lead actor race, a sign that things were improving.
HOME FILM NEWS FEBRUARY 22, 2018 5:00AM PT Hollywood Sexism Rules: Number of Female Protagonists Falls in 2017 By Brent Lang @BrentALang Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Show more sharing options LinkedIn WhatsApp Print Pin It Tumblr Wonder Woman Sound Design CREDIT: COURTESY OF WARNER BROS. Rey, Diana Prince, and Belle may have anchored some of the biggest box office hits of 2017, but they were the exception to the rule. Hollywood’s glass ceiling remained firmly in place as studios failed to back female-dominated movies last year, according to a new study by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.
In 2017, just 24% of protagonists in the 100 highest grossing films were women. That was a drop of five percentage points from 29% in 2016. The decline comes as a surprise given that the three most popular films last year, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and “Wonder Woman,” all had female lead characters. “Wonder Woman” also happened to be the first major studio comic book movie about a female superhero and boasted a female director in Patty Jenkins. Other hit movies such as “Girls Trip,” “Fifty Shades Darker,” and “The Post” also offered meaty roles for women, and Oscar pundits noted that the best actress category in 2017 was filled with more worthy candidates than the lead actor race, a sign that things were improving.
RELATED After 'Black Panther' and 'Wonder Woman,' It's Time for the Myth of the Fanboy to Fade 'The Cloverfield Paradox' Actress Elizabeth Debicki on How Her Height Affects Her Roles And yet, male characters continue to dominate the films in theaters. Indeed, the study found that moviegoers were more than twice as likely to see male characters on the big screen than female ones. There’s even a gender gap when it comes to who gets to open their mouth at the multiplexes. Seventy-nine percent of the top 100-grossing films had 10 or more male characters with speaking roles. In contrast, only 32% of the most popular films featured 10 or more female characters with lines to say.
There was some good news when it comes to diversity. The percentages of female characters of color reached record levels in 2017 — the number of black women increased from 14% in 2016 to 16% in 2017; the number of Latinas more than doubled from 3% in 2016 to 7% in 2017, and the percentage of Asian women increased a percentage point to 7% in 2017.
It definitely seemed to be a big studio problem. Indie films were much more likely to provide actresses with starring roles, a sign that companies are reticent to back big-budget films with female leads despite the historic popularity of “The Hunger Games,” “Twilight,” and other women-centric franchises. Sole female protagonists were more likely to appear in independent features (65%) than studio features (35%), while male protagonists were more likely to pop up in studio features (54%) than in art house fare (46%).
Genre also played a role, with studios backing more comedies and dramas with female protagonists than action films, horror films, animated features, and other types of movies.
Women also weren’t granted the same opportunity to age gracefully on screen as men. The bulk of female characters were in their twenties. At the same time, 46% of all male characters were over the age of 40, while 29% of all female characters were more than forty years old.
To me, having female Protagonists is a bit like having pregnant males.
I can never take seriously those movies where the women beat up men. A 50 year old man in average shape can snap a 30 year old body builder female like a twig if the need arises, generally speaking.
So I watch those movies rarely and mostly just for the special effects because the story is not believable.
Movies suck now because of all their ridiculous quotas.
Thank you leftards for destroying almost everything.
When I watch a movie, I want to be entertained by people that can actually act and tells a good story. I especially love a good comedy that isn’t afraid to offend anyone.
Hollywood’s glass ceiling remained firmly in place as studios failed to back female-dominated movies last yearThat's BS. The studios did nothing BUT back them. The moviegoing public is just fed up with their *******ed b***s***. A few years ago there was the Ghostbusters reboot -- yeah, that was a great idea, almost straight-to-video. And why? The ****head director blamed Trump voters. Even with the tax reform act I won't be spending my money on Hollywood's BS.
You obviously have never been attacked by a hot, young, foreign government agent female with daddy issues!!!!
Good,
Of course, now they will move on to homosexual protagonists.
Well she wasn’t a foreign agent, that I know of, but she did have Daddy issues, and I loved every second of it.
No Capes!!!!
Pictures, or it didn’t happen!!
You obviously have never been attacked by a hot, young, foreign government agent female with daddy issues!!!!
When women are the protagonists in movies, they often treat all men as villains by default, and that isn’t something that most men would would like to pay to watch.
Uh, kinda like the WNBA and women’s sports in general. In the last couple of years women soccer players have been bellyaching about not being paid the same as their male counterparts. But somehow it just never ever seems to dawn on them that nobody really cares about women’s sports.
Women’s sports is like watching the B team play. And so it is with movies, despite all the CGI efforts by Hollywood. Despite the massive effort to create a realistic illusion, everyone simply knows that women just cannot do certain things men do... no matter how much they stomp their feet and complain about that.
What I've been thinking but couldn't quite put it in words. There's only a few women sports that I think are worth watching - gymnastics and figure skating.
Other than those, as you said.
The entire premise of this story is simply Male Bovine Excrement! They didn’t talk about the TOTAL number of female protagonist movies, they talked about the top 100 grossing films!
Honestly, Hollywood has done all they can to put women in the leading roles of movies. So it isn’t “Hollywood Sexism Rules”.
The fact is the American people didn’t like those movies! Maybe, JUST MAYBE, if Hollywood made movies that people liked - female leads and all - then people would watch them. Otherwise, Hollywood will continue to go down hill - but not fast enough!!
It's the ticket payers' lack of interest, not a glass ceiling. Hollywood is, if anything at all, a whore for the dollar. If those movies made boatloads of money, they would be made.
Yay!
Very good examples and I imagine why women’s gymnastics and figure skating is actually rather popular.
The skaters are graceful and beautiful to watch, and they have amazing legs. Spins and jumps and twists, all performed over what is essentially frozen concrete.
I don't think they know how stats like this work. To me it says, "Hey, 71% of the movies that made money in 2016 had male leads. People seem to prefer male leads, so we have a better chance of making money with them. Let's make more Male lead movies and maximize our chances."
Well, YOU try saving the world while battling hot flashes!
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