study
Only 30 out of 100 Hollywood leading characters are female
The most successful film of 2023 had a female lead – but “Barbie” is one of the few films there.
© IMAGO / Picturelux
Fewer women over 45, fewer women of color, just fewer women in general. A new study takes stock of the genders in the leading roles of the 100 most successful films in 2023. The result: We are back in 2010.
“Bad Moms”, “Pitch Perfect”, most recently “Barbie” – women continue to conquer the cinema screens and screens at home. But what about the basic proportion of women in female Main roles? A research group at the University of Southern California has been studying this since 2007. The newly published figures for 2023: frightening.
Only 30 out of 100 Hollywood main characters are female
In the 100 most successful films of the past year are only 30 times female leads or co-main characters. While the highest value was recorded in 2022 with 44 films, the latest evaluation now corresponds to the status of 2010. And Stacy L. Smith, the founder of the Anneberg Initiative, also criticizes the fact that 2023 should be the “Year of Women”. which looks at these unequal gender representations in Hollywood films. “Over the past 14 years we have described the advances in the industry,” she says. But now be one catastrophic regression occurred.
“A failure of the industry” – female statistics generally declining
There were only 30 female roles in total, only three of which had leading actresses over 45 years old (for comparison: men aged 45+ were represented a total of 32 times), only 14 films with women of color, four fewer than a year earlier. Declines that one would not expect in 2023. At least there was an increase, but it was based on every 100 films viewed: ethnic minorities were now represented in the lead role 37 times; in 2022 this figure was 31.
Stacy L. Smith describes the results of the new study as “an industry failure”. In addition to the representation of women and girls, the numbers would also represent their career opportunities – and those probably don’t look particularly positive.
Sources used: annenberg.usc.edu, spiegel.de