Women represented only 16% of directors who produced the 250 highest-grossing films of 2024, according to a new study. Is Hollywood a dunce when it comes to gender equality?
If God created woman, Hollywood forgot it. From thrillers like “Babygirl” to horror films like “The Substance” to inspirational sports biopic like “The Fire Inside,” women have made some of the boldest and most acclaimed films of 2024 However, the presence of female directors at the top of the box office remains the exception and not the rule.
Women made up just 16 percent of the directors behind the 250 top-grossing films, according to a new study from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University. This figure corresponds to the percentage of films directed by women in 2024. The situation has not improved as we move up the box office rankings: women have only directed 11% of 100 most popular films, three points less than in 2023.
Some of these films, like Rachel Morrison’s “The Fire Inside,” were released in late 2024 and therefore have not yet finalized their box office scores, while others, like “Woman of the Hour”, the streaming success of Anna Kendrick, were not released in theaters and are therefore not taken into account in the University’s research. It’s also worth noting that many of these films, like Rose Glass’s “Love Lies Bleeding” or Alice Rohrwacher’s “La Chimera,” were distributed by independent labels and not major studios, meaning that their revenue at the box office will be minimal. But even with these exceptions, the results are striking: the situation of female directors is not improving.
“These numbers are staggering”
Martha Lauzen, author of the study, highlighted the achievements of filmmakers like Coralie Fargeat (“The Substance”) and Halina Reijn (“Babygirl”), while lamenting the state of an industry that has not achieved much progress when it comes to highlighting women filmmakers.
“The breakout successes of high-profile women in recent years – including Greta Gerwig, Jane Campion and Chloé Zhao – have not translated into opportunities for more women. The visibility of a few has not generated jobs for others,” declared the American researcher.
When women are tasked with directing films, they are more likely to employ other women in key positions behind the scenes than films directed by men. In feature films directed by at least one woman, they represented 52% of screenwriters, 27% of editors and 34% of directors of photography. On the other hand, in films directed by men, women represent 12% of screenwriters, 17% of editors and 5% of directors of photography.
“These numbers are staggering. We could blame the current environment of so much change, but Hollywood as a whole has dragged its feet on the issue of gender equality for decades,” added Martha Lauzen, referring to budget cuts, changes in business models and corporate mergers that characterized a tumultuous period in cinema history.
On the French side, the latest study published by the “50/50” collective placed the share of French films directed by women at 29% in 2023. If French productions do better than across the Atlantic, the collective estimates that with such weak progress, “parity will not be achieved before 2041”.
