- Female protagonists in films reached gender parity with male protagonists for the fist time in recent history in 2024. They had the same share of the top grossing films for the year.
- Females also saw more speaking roles and significant characters in 2024.
- About 54% of the top 100 movies featured women or girl protagonists, according to the annual Annenberg Inclusion Initiative study.
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The blockbuster movies of 2024 not only broke box office records but featured female leads just as much as they did male leads, making 2024 a big year for women.
More females in film
Of the 100 top-grossing films of 2024, 42% featured female protagonists, exactly on par with another 42% featuring male protagonists, according to a newly released study from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University. The other 16% were featured ensemble casts.
The same study also found small, but not negligible, growth for female characters in other roles.
For example, female characters saw more speaking roles, up from 35% in 2023 to 37% in 2024. The percentage of major female characters rose one point from 38% in 2023 to 39% in 2024.
Women taking the lead
The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative also released its annual study this week. It found that 54% of the top 100 films in 2024 featured girls and women as protagonists.
That’s a considerable jump from 2023, when less than a third (30%) of films featured women in lead roles.
