The energy of “The Woman King’s” reign continues to be being felt. Gina Prince-Bythewood’s newest is among the many titles starring girls of colour making a serious mark on the movie trade. A brand new report from Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative discovered a “significant increase in the number of top-grossing films with girls and women of color in leading and co leading roles in 2022,” per a press launch.
Titled “Inequality Across 1,600 Popular Films: Examining Gender, Race/Ethnicity & Age of Leads/Co Leads From 2007 to 2022,” the report transient examines the gender, race/ethnicity, and age of lead/co lead actors throughout 100 top-grossing films annually from 2007 to 2022.
“The figures for women of color were the primary bright spot in the report,” the discharge explains. “In 2022, 16% of the 100 top-grossing films featured a girl or woman from an underrepresented racial/ethnic group in a leading or co leading role. This was an increase from 11% in 2021 and from the [one] movie in 2007 with a woman of color in the lead. In fact, 2022 had the highest number of underrepresented women and non-binary leads/co leads across the 16 years examined.”
“The progress for women of color in leading roles is encouraging,” mentioned Dr. Smith. “It’s past time for the film industry to recognize that stories about women of color have a place in theaters. Girls and women of color are 20% of the U.S. population, but the film industry has not ensured that this is what audiences see on screen. With effort and accountability, this threshold is one that not only can be achieved but easily surpassed.”
As the discharge observes, “the findings for women overall were less positive. In 2022, 44% of films had a female-identified lead/co lead, which reflects no change from the 41% of films with a female-identified lead/co lead in 2021.” While there’s been a rise within the proportion of female-led movies since 2007 when the determine was 20%, prime movies movies “still fail to meet the U.S. Census threshold — roughly 50% of the population identifies as female.”
The report additionally thought of the age of main/co main actors: a complete of 35 movies in 2022 featured a person aged 45 or older in a lead/co lead position in comparison with simply 10 with girls 45 and above. “These 10 films were similar to the team’s findings in 2021 ([seven] movies) but represented a significant increase from the [one] film in 2007 with a woman 45 years of age or older in a lead/co lead role. Notably, five of the movies with a woman age 45-plus in 2022 featured a woman of color in the lead, compared to zero in 2021,” the discharge particulars.
Check out the complete report, which incorporates an examination of which main and mini distributors had female-identified and underrepresented leads/co leads, right here.