Box office smash “Wicked” met the ReFrame Stamp criteria for gender-balanced films. It was one of … More
Amid questions raised by the Trump Administration about whether diversity, equity and inclusion efforts work, evidence from a new ReFrame study supports the effectiveness of gender equity.
ReFrame launched the initiative in 2017 by Sundance Institute and WIF (formerly Women In Film Los Angeles) to advance gender equity in the screen industries, and entertainment website IMDbPro finds that films with gender-balanced teams (including production, crew and actors) do well at the box office. Those that meet the guidelines are said to earn the ReFrame Stamp.
“Despite their smaller share across the Top 100, Stamped films over-index on profitability, comprising half of the 10 top-grossing films in 2024, with Inside Out 2 following in Barbie’s footsteps as a Stamped film with a female lead that topped both the year’s domestic and worldwide box offices,” noted the report.
ReFrame Stamped releases within the top 100 at the worldwide box office earned, on average, more than double the non-Stamped movies on the list, averaging $293 million gross vs. $117.8 million.
That box office bulk is certainly food for thought at a time when DEI programs at both public and private institutions have recently been eliminated.
Interestingly, the study found that there’s been no notable improvement over the past five years in gender-balanced hiring—30% or fewer films fit the ReFrame Stamp criteria. And, strikingly, films with gender-balanced teams tend to have lower budgets.
Top Films Of 2024 Have Gender-Balanced Teams
Inside Out 2 was the top-grossing movie of 2024, with a domestic gross of $652 million, according to Box Office Mojo. Wicked, which also received the ReFrame Stamp, was the year’s No. 2 film with a domestic take of $432 million.
Additionally, three of 2024’s Best Picture Oscar nominees also received the ReFrame Stamp: Wicked, The Substance and Emelia Pérez.
Lower Budgets For Stamped Films
It seems the dollars aren’t flowing behind gender-balanced films despite their box office heft. The report found that films with larger budgets are less inclusive, with the proportion of Stamped films over the past three years at the highest budget level of $100 million or more, about half that of the lowest budget level of $15 million or less.
And Stamped films’ average budget plummeted by $18 million, from $63 million in 2023 to $45 million in 2024. That’s not an industry-wide trend. At the same time, budgets for non-Stamped films decreased $8 million, from $76 million in 2023 to $68 million in 2024.
Other interesting tidbits from the study:
- The number of women directors among the top 100 grossing films fell from 2023 20 to 14 in 2023, and there were no transgender or nonbinary directors and only five women of color, down from nine in 2023.
- Women screenwriters declined 23.3%, from 30 in 2023 to 23 in 2024, with worse declines for women of color (eight in 2023 and three in 2024).
- On the other hand, lead acting roles reached parity, with 51 films starring women, including one transgender woman. Of those 51 women, 17 were women of color.
