--- title: Despite Success of Hunger Games, Frozen, Women Still Struggle in Film description: Katniss Everdeen of 'The Hunger Games' franchise is one of only a handful of female protagonists in current films canonical: https://time.com/3419411/women-led-blockbuster-successes-havent-killed-movie-gender-gap/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-22T23:17:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:01.933Z og:title: Despite Success of Hunger Games, Frozen, Women Still Struggle in Film og:description: Katniss Everdeen of 'The Hunger Games' franchise is one of only a handful of female protagonists in current films og:url: https://time.com/3419411/women-led-blockbuster-successes-havent-killed-movie-gender-gap/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt58dfee86a1a79c1e/698695951eebf739033713df/140530_inv_pickpro_hungergames_1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3600 og:image:height: 2025 og:image:alt: 140530_INV_PickPro_HungerGames_1 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Despite Success of Hunger Games, Frozen, Women Still Struggle in Film twitter:description: Katniss Everdeen of 'The Hunger Games' franchise is one of only a handful of female protagonists in current films twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt58dfee86a1a79c1e/698695951eebf739033713df/140530_inv_pickpro_hungergames_1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Women-Led Blockbuster Successes Haven't Killed Movie Gender Gap > Sponsored content. 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It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Sep 22, 2014 11:17 PM UTC  Jennifer Lawrence stars as Katniss Everdeen Jennifer Lawrence stars as Katniss Everdeen Murray Close—Lionsgate  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Sep 22, 2014 11:17 PM UTC Don’t be fooled by the box-office sales of movies starring strong women like Katniss in _The Hunger Games_ or Elsa and Anna in _Frozen_: there’s still a gender gap in Hollywood. According to a [new report](http://seejane.org/wp-content/uploads/gender-bias-without-borders-executive-summary.pdf) by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, only 23% of the films distributed internationally from 2010 to 2013 featured female protagonists and only 31% of the speaking characters were women. Things are even less equitable behind the camera: only 8% of the 120 films studied had a female director. The dearth of women-helmed films correlates with how many women made it on-screen: the study showed that films with female directors had a 6.8% higher chance of including more female on-screen, and those with a female writer had a 7.5% higher chance of including women in the cast. Even if movies did have lots of female characters, the portrayals were not necessarily empowering: appearance comments were directed at women five times more than men in the scripts. Women were also sexualized more often than men: they were over two times more likely to be shown in revealing attire or fully naked. And women characters were also less likely than men to have accomplished careers in film: only 14.8% of doctors in movies were women; 13.9% of executives; 9.1% of lawyers; 8.9% of engineers; and 4.1% of sports figures. These new stats, while bleak, are not a shocking break from past studies: in 2013, women made up only 15% of the protagonists, [according to](http://time.com/2811177/maleficent-female-summer-blockbusters/) San Diego State University, and only [36% of films passed](http://www.vocativ.com/01-2014/hollywood-movies-strong-female-roles-make-money/) the [Bechdel test](http://time.com/3392463/alison-bechdel-test-macarthur-prize/), a simple tool that asks whether there are two women in a movie that speak to each other about something other than a man. And yet studios would benefit financially if they changed the current trend. A Vocativ analysis from earlier this year found that movies with strong female roles [make more money](http://entertainment.time.com/2014/01/03/movies-with-strong-female-roles-make-more-money/). _The Hunger Games_ franchise, _Frozen_, _Maleficent_ and _Gravity_ attracted massive audiences, in part because 60% of the over-25 movie-going audience is female, and women — like every other demographic — want to see people who look like them onscreen. On a brighter note, women had a good summer at the box office: films with female leads like _The Fault in Our Stars_ [surprised analysts](http://time.com/3086329/lucy-avengers-malificent-scarlett-johansson-angelina-jolie/) by edging out traditional tentpole films like _Edge of Tomorrow_, and female-driven fantasy and action films like _Maleficent_ and _Lucy_ [proved that audiences will buy tickets](http://time.com/3034230/scarlett-johansson-lucy-and-the-future-of-the-female-action-star/) to big blockbusters with women in the lead role. (And Jennifer Lawrence is poised to seal that claim with the next _Hunger Games_ installment in November.) Hopefully, the big numbers will finally start to change producers’ minds: Marvel Studios has [hinted at](http://time.com/3075927/marvel-kevin-feige-guardians-of-the-galaxy-black-widow/) an upcoming superhero film, while Sony already has a D.C. film starring a heroine [under way](http://time.com/3079882/a-female-superhero-movie-is-finally-coming/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3419411/women-led-blockbuster-successes-havent-killed-movie-gender-gap/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3419411/women-led-blockbuster-successes-havent-killed-movie-gender-gap/"},"headline":"Women-Led Blockbuster Successes Haven't Killed Movie Gender Gap","datePublished":"2014-09-22T23:17:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:01.933Z","description":"Only 23% of the films studied had female protagonists, while just 31% of the speaking characters were women","url":"https://time.com/3419411/women-led-blockbuster-successes-havent-killed-movie-gender-gap/","keywords":["Living","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt58dfee86a1a79c1e/698695951eebf739033713df/140530_inv_pickpro_hungergames_1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt58dfee86a1a79c1e/698695951eebf739033713df/140530_inv_pickpro_hungergames_1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"140530_INV_PickPro_HungerGames_1","caption":"140530_INV_PickPro_HungerGames_1","creditText":"Murray Close—Lionsgate","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3419411/women-led-blockbuster-successes-havent-killed-movie-gender-gap/","name":"Women-Led Blockbuster Successes Haven't Killed Movie Gender Gap"}}]}] ```