Distribution of lead actors in movies in the U.S. 2011-2021, by gender

A 2021 report found that 47.2 percent of lead actors in films in the United States that year were female. A decade earlier, the share stood at 25.6 percent. Despite the overall growth, the 2021 figure marks the first decrease since 2013. Throughout the second half of the 2010s, not more than 30 percent of Academy Award-winning movies had a female lead actor, according to the same study.

Hollywood: still more men behind the cameras

Whereas female share in lead roles in cinema has mostly increased, the percentage of women in behind-the-scenes jobs in the U.S. film industry still has a long way to go. In 2021, female professionals accounted for one-quarter of the personnel. The year also recorded the first decrease in average hourly earnings of employees in the U.S. motion picture and sound recording industries since 2015. The value stood just above 41 U.S. dollars.

Do men go more often to the movies in the U.S.?

During a survey concluded in May 2022, 46 percent of responding male internet users said they went to see a film in theaters at least sometimes. Among women, the share stood at 37 percent. According to another source, at least 55 percent of the audiences of the top-grossing movies in the U.S. and Canada in 2021 were male. The film with the highest share of female viewers (45 percent) was "Black Widow," whose title character is played by Scarlett Johansson.