Research: Women of Color See Gains in Top-Grossing Films

Research

Research: Women of Color See Gains in Top-Grossing Films

The power of “The Woman King’s” reign is still being felt.  Gina Prince-Bythewood’s latest is among the titles starring women of color making a major mark on the film industry. A new report from Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found a “significant increase in the number of top-grossing films with girls and women of color in leading and co leading roles in 2022,” per a press release.

Titled “Inequality Across 1,600 Popular Films: Examining Gender, Race/Ethnicity & Age of Leads/Co Leads From 2007 to 2022,” the report brief examines the gender, race/ethnicity, and age of lead/co lead actors across 100 top-grossing movies each year from 2007 to 2022.

“The figures for women of color were the primary bright spot in the report,” the release explains. “In 2022, 16% of the 100 top-grossing films featured a girl or woman from an underrepresented racial/ethnic group in a leading or co leading role. This was an increase from 11% in 2021 and from the [one] movie in 2007 with a woman of color in the lead. In fact, 2022 had the highest number of underrepresented women and non-binary leads/co leads across the 16 years examined.”

“The progress for women of color in leading roles is encouraging,” said Dr. Smith. “It’s past time for the film industry to recognize that stories about women of color have a place in theaters. Girls and women of color are 20% of the U.S. population, but the film industry has not ensured that this is what audiences see on screen. With effort and accountability, this threshold is one that not only can be achieved but easily surpassed.”

As the release observes, “the findings for women overall were less positive. In 2022, 44% of films had a female-identified lead/co lead, which reflects no change from the 41% of films with a female-identified lead/co lead in 2021.” While there’s been an increase in the percentage of female-led films since 2007 when the figure was 20%, top films films “still fail to meet the U.S. Census threshold — roughly 50% of the population identifies as female.”

The report also considered the age of leading/co leading actors: a total of 35 films in 2022 featured a man aged 45 or older in a lead/co lead role compared to just 10 with women 45 and above. “These 10 films were similar to the team’s findings in 2021 ([seven] movies) but represented a significant increase from the [one] film in 2007 with a woman 45 years of age or older in a lead/co lead role. Notably, five of the movies with a woman age 45-plus in 2022 featured a woman of color in the lead, compared to zero in 2021,” the release details.

Check out the full report, which includes an examination of which major and mini distributors had female-identified and underrepresented leads/co leads, here.