Female Film Leads Are On The Rise

In the wake of the Oscars last night, some positive news from the film industry - female film leads are becoming more common. 2016 saw a 7 point increase on 2015 for the share of the top 100 grossing films that featured a clearly identifiable sole female protagonist. This compares to the paltry 12 percent seen in 2014. There is of course a long way to go and it remains to be seen if 2016 is an exception or the start of an upward trend. When it comes to genre, comedies were the most likely to feature a female lead (28%) while 'action' (3%) is still dominated by men.