Women Directed Record 12% of Top 100-Grossing Films in 2019, Study Finds
Four women of color also cracked the top 100 last year
Thom Geier | January 2, 2020 @ 5:00 AM
Last Updated: January 2, 2020 @ 7:28 AM
Jennifer Lee, Kasi Lemmons, Greta Gerwig (Getty Images)
A record 10.6% of the directors of 2019’s top 100-grossing movies were women, directing 12% of Hollywood’s biggest hits last year, according to the latest study by Stacy L. Smith and USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative.
That’s the best gender representation since Smith and her team began studying the prevalence of female directors in 2007 — though the overall percentage remains 4.8% across all 13 years of the research. The top-grossing female filmmaker was Jennifer Lee, who co-directed the year’s No. 4 domestic box office hit, “Frozen II,” with Chris Buck.
“This is the first time we have seen a shift in hiring practices for female film directors in 13 years,” Smith said, noting that Universal alone had five films in the top 100 with female directors: Jill Culton’s “Abominable,” Melina Matsoukas’ “Queen & Slim,” Tina Gordon’s “Little,” Gail Mancuso’s “A Dog’s Journey” and Kasi Lemmons’ “Harriet” (through art-house division Focus Features). “Yet there is still much more progress needed to reach parity for women behind the camera.”
The study also found that the percentage of nonwhite directors reached 16.8% in 2019, a dip from 2018’s high of 21.4%. Four women of color directed a top 100 movie in 2019: Gordon, Lemmons, Matsoukas and “Breakthrough” director Roxann Dawson.
Despite the higher representation last year, Smith noted that less than 1% of all directors of top-grossing movies over the last 13 years were women of color. “In fact, 13 women have directed a top film in 13 years,” Smith said. “While 2019 is a banner year for women, we will not be able to say there is true change until all women have access and opportunity to work at this level.”
Smith’s study also found no differences in the average or median Metacritic scores for male- or female-directed movies, or for those by white versus nonwhite directors. However, female directors of color “received the highest median and average Metacritic scores for their films compared to white male-, underrepresented male-, and white female-directed content,” Smith said. “Yet, women of color are least likely to work as directors across the top 100 films each year. These findings suggest that when companies seek to hire ‘the best person for the job,’ they are not relying on objective criteria, but on a subjective view of storytellers.”
Over the last five years, the researchers found that the percentage of female directors at the top eight Hollywood studios was 9.8%, with the highest percentage — 15% — coming last year. Only 35% of the 40 slates included a woman of color as a director.
By comparison, 20% of Netflix’s 2019 directors of U.S. fictional films were women, the study found. And the pipeline for upcoming directors also looks promising, with women directing 34.5% of the feature films in U.S. Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival between 2015 and 2019.
“Netflix’s value for inclusion is reflected in their 2019 slate,” Smith said.. “Legacy studios must recognize that the world and the talent pipeline looks vastly different from their hiring practices and act to reflect that reality.”
The study also spotlighted the lack of award recognition for female filmmakers. Only 5.1% of Best Director award nominees across the Golden Globes, Academy Awards, DGA Awards, and Critics’ Choice Awards were women. Only four individual women — Kathryn Bigelow, Ava DuVernay, Greta Gerwig and Angelina Jolie — received nominations for any of these awards and just one woman won: Bigelow for 2009’s “The Hurt Locker.”
“A bias that fails to acknowledge women’s leadership is pervasive throughout the entire awards ecosystem,” Smith said. “We see that women’s achievements behind the camera are still not seen or celebrated by their peers or the press. Until we shatter the stereotype of who can be lauded as a director, we will not see change in this area.”
9 Female-Led Superhero Films in 2020, From 'The Eternals' to 'Wonder Woman 1984' (Photos)
Next year is going to be a big one for super-powered women, with 9 female-led superhero movies hitting theaters in 2020. And if rough estimates pan out, these films could combine to gross over $4 billion at movie theaters worldwide. Not only that, but if 12 months from now "Birds of Prey," "Mulan," "Black Widow, "Wonder Woman 1984," and "Eternals" are among the year's 10 highest grossing films, it will be the first time ever that the list will have gender parity among directors. Read on to see which women will be kicking asses in movie theaters throughout 2020.
1. "The Rhythm Section" -- Jan. 31
January kicks off with Blake Lively's long-anticipated spy thriller "The Rhythm Section," a possible franchise-starter led from the long-time producers of the James Bond films, Michael G. Wilson, and Barbara Broccoli. Lively's got dark hair, an icy cold stare and is looking to settle things violently in the movie written by Mark Burnell based on his book of the same name. Directed by Reed Morano, best known for her work on Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale," it also stars Jude Law and Sterling K. Brown.
2. "Birds of Prey" -- Feb. 7
Margot Robbie once again plays Harley Quinn, now broken up with the Joker and teaming up with a crew of badass women like Black Canary (Jurnee Smollet-Bell), Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) to stop the villain Black Mask (Ewan McGregor) before he can have Cassandra Cain (Basco) murdered.
3. "Mulan" -- March 27
Director Niki Caro's live action take on Disney's 1998 animated stars Liu Yifei as the legendary Chinese warrior woman who risks everything out of love for her family and her country to become one of the greatest fighters the middle kingdom has ever known.
4. "The New Mutants" -- April 3
Staring Maisie Williams ("Game of Thrones" and Anya Taylor-Joy, this horror film set in the X-universe was filmed two years ago -- but has been in limbo ever since. It was originally supposed to debut in April 2018 but has been delayed over and over again. The film's director confirmed the film was still being tinkered with as of December 2019, but with release scheduled for April, the first trailer is supposedly coming in January.
5. "Black Widow" -- May 1
Set immediately after the events of “Captain America: Civil War”; "Black Widow" follows Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) as she reunites with former members of the (former) Soviet assassin squad she grew up with to defeat an even greater threat.
6. "Wonder Woman 1984" -- June 5
Set during the late height of Cold War tensions, the film sees Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) facing two new enemies, including the villain Cheetah (Kristen Wiig), and dealing with the unexpected return of Steve Trevor (Chris Pine). Patty Jenkins returns to direct the sequel to the 2017 box office hit. Watch the spectacular trailer here.
7. "Monster Hunter" -- Sep. 4
Based on the Capcom video game series, "Monster Hunter" stars Milla Jovovich as the leader of a military unit transported to a parallel world dominated by ferocious monsters. In her desperate battle for survival, she teams up with a mysterious man (Tony Jaa) who has found a way to fight back.
8. "The Eternals" -- Nov. 6
Starring Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, and Gemma Chan, Marvel Studios' next heroic team up movie centers on a race of ancient human beings created a million years ago by the cosmic entities known as the Celestials. There's still no trailer, but fans at Comic-Con experience Brazil saw the first public showing of footage. Read about that here.
9. "No Time to Die" - April 2 (UK)/April 8 (U.S.)
Yes, technically this is a James Bond outing fronted by Daniel Craig in his final appearance as James Bond. But we're including it because the story sees 007 teaming up with the first female OO, "Nomi," played by "Captain Marvel's" Lashana Lynch. "So stay in your lane. You get in my way, I will put a bullet in your knee. The one that works," Nomi tells Bond during the recent trailer.
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Move over boys — 2020 looks like it will go down as the year female-fronted superhero movies will dominate the box office
Next year is going to be a big one for super-powered women, with 9 female-led superhero movies hitting theaters in 2020. And if rough estimates pan out, these films could combine to gross over $4 billion at movie theaters worldwide. Not only that, but if 12 months from now "Birds of Prey," "Mulan," "Black Widow, "Wonder Woman 1984," and "Eternals" are among the year's 10 highest grossing films, it will be the first time ever that the list will have gender parity among directors. Read on to see which women will be kicking asses in movie theaters throughout 2020.