THESE movies outpace all others – but why? They have FEMALE leads study finds

The New York Times recently reported on a new study about the success of cinema. The research was undertaken by the Creative Artists Agency and shift7, a company started by the former United States chief technology officer Megan Smith. Their findings concluded in a simple fact: the top movies from 2014 to 2017 starring women earned more than male-led films. Movies which topped the list made it there regardless of their budget – whether they cost less than £10 million or more than £100 million.

For those sceptical of the research as having some broader political agenda, it is important to examine how the research was conducted.

The two bodies studied 350 of the top films at the global box office for each year from 2014 to 2017.

They pulled information from Gracenote, a data and technology provider owned by Nielsen, and Bechdeltest.com.

For defining the Lead actor in each movie, it was determined by the performer listed first on Gracenote.

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As odd as it may seem, it meant Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi didn’t make the cut.

Gracenote listed Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill as the leads for each, rather than Daisy Ridley.

The movies were then separated by budget, and within each budget category films with female leads surpassed their male-led peers.

Furthermore, a small victory was one for proponents of the Bechdel test, coined by author Alison Bechdel.

The Bechdel test measures whether two named female characters have a conversation about something other than a man in a movie.

Films which passed the Bechdel test far outperformed those that failed the test.

The New York Times also credited audiences’ thirst for new and compelling storylines as part of the drive behind these movies’ success.

Christy Haubegger, a CAA agent involved in the research told The New York Times: “The perception that it’s not good business to have female leads is not true. They’re a marketing asset.”

You can read more in detail about the study at the New York Times.

What does this mean for cinema? Well, for the upcoming Captain Marvel movie it can only be good.

Likewise, Bumblebee benefits from a strong female character, as does The Favourite.

And hopefully an undoing of what Haubegger called “a lot of bias disguising itself as knowledge.”

Clearly, the more diverse our films are, the better they perform – and the better we are for it.