More than half of the 100 top-grossing movies of 2024 had a female leading, or co-leading, protagonist for the first time, according to a report released on Tuesday.
The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative from the University of Southern California found that 54% of the top 100 box office movies featured women and girls as main characters.
That represents a leap from the 30% reported in 2023 and the just 20% in 2007 when the USC annual report began.
Women dominate the box office
"This is the first time we can say that gender equality has been reached in top-grossing films," Stacy L. Smith, founder of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, said in a statement.
"In 2024, three of the top five films had a girl or woman in a leading role, as did five of the top 10 films — including the number one film of the year, Disney's 'Inside Out 2,'" added Smith.
Other notable major pictures with leading female protagonists in 2024 were "Wicked" with Cynthia Erivo, "The Substance" with Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, and "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" with Anya Taylor-Joy.
There was, however, some disparity between studios. Women were in leading roles in 66.7% of the movies released by Universal Studios, but 38.5% for Sony Pictures Entertainment.
"We have always known that female-identified leads would make money. This is not the result of an economic awakening but is due to a number of different constituencies and efforts — at advocacy groups, at studios, through DEI initiatives — to assert the need for equality on screen," Smith said.
Hollywood's representation of minorities still lacking
Despite the increase in the number of women in leading roles, a separate report by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, also released on Tuesday, found that the percentage of female characters in speaking roles increased from 35% to just 37% in 2024.
The USC report also found that gender inclusion had not been matched by racial inclusion.
It found that only 25 of the top 100 movies had a person of color in the leading role, down from 37 in 2023. No studio came close to proportionally representing the 41.6% of the US population, according to the census, who are people of color.
"While this year's findings mark a historic step towards proportional representation for women there is still work to be done for women of color," Katherine Neff, the lead author of the USC study, said.
