Film Industry News

Less Leading Ladies

Beauty and the Beast, Wonder Woman, Star Wars - The Last Jedi

According to the Center for the study of women in TV and film despite many films with female leads dominating the box office in 2017 the overall number of films with sole female leads dropped to 24% from 29% in 2016.

29% was already a shamefully low number but for it to dropeven lower is both shocking and unexpected especially when looking at all the top grossing films of 2017 such as The Last Jedi and Wonder Woman which both had female leads.

So what is the cause of this? Firstly this could be down to the production. According to this BBC article 45% of protagonists were female when at least 1 female was a writer of director. Compare that to just 20% from male directors and writers who are far more likely to sideline women to secondary characters. As well as this most women who played large roles were in their 20s and 30s whereas men were in their 30s and 40s which suggests that the sex appeal of younger women is a big part of casting presumably from male writers and directors.

I think that something must be done as it has been proven time and time again that women are just as capable as men in bringing an excellent performance. Just look at Frances Mcdormand in Three Billboards or anything with Octavia Spencer and you'll see exactly what I mean.

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