Give it up for the ladies! It turns out that female-led blockbusters generate a lot more of that coveted Box Office dough than films led by males.
This revelation was revealed by a study on shift7.com which analyzed films released in 2014-17 of any budget. Perhaps surprisingly, it turned out that feature films starring women generated far more revenue than men-led flicks regardless of budget involved.
Check out the graph below:
The period of time selected for the research was host to a whole host of well-regarded female-led films. From Wonder Woman to Moana to Beauty and the Beast, 2014-17 was a good period for female-led blockbusters. But of course, there were plenty of great male-led movies too, like Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Fury.
The researchers split the films into five categories based on how much they cost to make. They started with films that cost less than $10 million to make and up to those that cost $100 million or more.
The Bechdel test was also examined in the films and those that passed it earned higher at the Box Office. For those who don’t know, the Bechdel test is a measure of the representation of women in fiction. If a movie has at least two named women in it and has them talk about something other than a man, it passes the test.
In other words, films that had multiple women who didn’t discuss the hottest guys all movie-long were the ones that rocked the Box Office.
“This is powerful proof that audiences want to see everyone represented on screen,” said Amy Pascal, head of Pascal Pictures and former chairman of Sony Pictures, “Decision-makers in Hollywood need to pay attention to this.”
“What we see on screen affects how we see ourselves and each other,” said chief executive of shift7 Megan Smith.
“When people who have been traditionally under-represented are stereotyped or left out of the story entirely, we diminish confidence and deprive people of role models and directly hold back the country’s economic and social potential.”
