Speaking Roles for Female Characters and Women Over 60 Declined in 2023’s Top-Grossing Films, New Study Shows
variety.comAngelique Jackson A new study indicates that the tenets that contributed to “Barbie’s” $1.4 billion box office success and pop culture dominance — namely featuring a female-led ensemble — was the exception rather than the rule in Hollywood this year.
Outside of Barbieland and a handful of other movies that were fronted by female characters, there was decreasing opportunity for women in film in 2023.
The latest “It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World” report from Dr. Martha Lauzen, executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, found that in 2023, only 18% of the 100 top-grossing films featured more female than male characters and 5% of films had equal numbers of female and male characters.
This meant that a whopping 77% of movies had more male than female characters in speaking roles. “Because ‘Barbie’ claimed so much of our cultural space in 2023, female characters may have seemed more abundant in films last year,” stated Lauzen summarizing the study’s findings. “But the overall percentage of female characters in speaking roles contracted, as did the percentage of female protagonists.” This year’s study analyzes 2,200 characters appearing in the 100 top-grossing films and provides historical comparisons dating back to 2002, when Lauzen’s team began tracking the representation of female characters.
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