{"id":905284,"date":"2026-09-22T11:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T11:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/905284\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T11:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T11:42:12","slug":"movies-written-by-women-make-more-money-yet-budgets-go-to-male-filmmakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/905284\/","title":{"rendered":"Movies written by women make more money, yet budgets go to male filmmakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\""A<\/a>image: \u00a9bjones27 | iStock
\n Movies written by women generate substantially higher median profits and returns on investment (ROI) than male-only productions, yet female filmmakers remain heavily underrepresented, particularly in big-budget projects<\/p>\n

A study has revealed a significant disconnect between financial performance and capital allocation in the film industry.<\/p>\n

The comprehensive 30-year study published in Frontiers in Communication<\/a> highlights a structural \u201ccapital allocation puzzle,\u201d where studio greenlighting practices continue to favour male creators despite data showing higher financial efficiency from women screenwriters.<\/p>\n

Key financial findings: The profitability gap<\/p>\n

Analysing a financial subset of over 4,200 movies released between 1994 and 2023, the study compared production budgets, worldwide gross revenues, and ROIs across different gender configurations in writing and directing roles:<\/p>\n

Higher median profits for female screenwriters:<\/p>\n

Films written (but not directed) by women generated a median profit of approximately $35.9 million, 34% higher than the $26.8 million median profit of male-only productions operating on comparable budgets.<\/p>\n

Superior capital efficiency (ROI):<\/p>\n

Films with female screenwriters achieved an average ROI of 1.1 (a 25% advantage over the 0.88 ROI of male-only films). Movies featuring women in both directing and screenwriting roles achieved ROIs equivalent to male-only films while operating on just half the production budget.<\/p>\n

Outperformance in high-budget tiers:<\/p>\n

Within the top 1% of production budgets, the few films featuring female screenwriters yielded a median profit about $113 million higher than male-only films. Similar outperformance was observed in the top 5% (+$86 million median profit) and top 10% (+$134 million median profit) budget brackets.<\/p>\n

Persistent disparities in budget and representation<\/p>\n

Despite superior financial metrics, gender representation and budget distribution remain heavily skewed toward male filmmakers:<\/p>\n

Slow rate of inclusion<\/p>\n

Over 30 years, the proportion of films crediting at least one woman as a director or screenwriter rose from 21.5% in 1994 to 29.4% in 2023\u2014meaning fewer than one in three films included women in these key creative roles.<\/p>\n

Exclusion from blockbuster funding<\/p>\n

Male-dominated projects accounted for 74.8% of the top 10% of budgets, 78.6% of the top 5%, and 88.6% of the top 1% of budgets.<\/p>\n

Zero female directors in the top 1% of budgets<\/p>\n

Across the entire 30-year dataset of 44 films in the top 1% of production budgets, not a single film involved a female director.<\/p>\n

Post- #MeToo plateaus<\/p>\n

While female participation increased after the 2017 #MeToo<\/a> movement, the study observed no lasting acceleration in funding for movies written by women and in the overall rate of growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"image: \u00a9bjones27 | iStock Movies written by women generate substantially higher median profits and returns on investment (ROI)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":905285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,48,35583,87424,714,61],"class_list":["post-905284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-gender-equality","tag-gender-pay-gap","tag-politics","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=905284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/905285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}