Liz Laine Reps will represent boutique transmedia production company Global Mechanic Media exclusively in the Midwest and on the West Coast for all commercial and digital work…Grace & Wild Studios in Farmington Hills, Mass., has hired account executive Jacquelyn Pierce. Pierce will be exploring new business opportunities and maintaining existing accounts for the company’s production services offerings. Pierce has spent the past four years as a marketing and communications consultant for Fieger Law in Southfield, Michigan. In her position there, she developed and implemented a social media strategy, created a new and traditional public relations and advertising campaign, and created image branding materials, such as press releases, a newsletter, website, photo exhibit to promote the law firm and nationally renowned lawyer Geoffrey Fieger. Prior to that, she served more than eight years as an independent executive producer, writer and talent for various broadcast and online projects, and spent eight years as VP of advertising and marketing at Sussman Sikes & Associates in Southfield, Mich….
USC Annenberg Report: Female Protagonists Reach Parity With Men In Top-Grossing Films Of 2024
For the first time in recent history, the percentage of top-grossing films featuring female protagonists equaled the percentage of films with male protagonists, according to a pair of annual studies released Tuesday.
Movies like "Wicked,""Inside Out 2" and "The Substance" lifted Hollywood's theatrical releases to gender parity in leading roles in 2024. Of the 100 top domestic grossing films in 2024, 42% had female protagonists, and 42% had male protagonists, according to a report issued by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.
The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, which also released its annual study Tuesday, found that 54% of the top 100 films at the box office in 2024 featured girls and women as protagonists. That's a massive jump from just the year prior, when 30% of films featured women in lead roles. In 2007, when the USC annual study began, that figure was just 20%.
"This is the first time we can say that gender equality has been reached in top-grossing films," Stacy L. Smith, founder of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, said in a statement.
"In 2024, three of the top five films had a girl or woman in a leading role, as did five of the top 10 films — including the number one film of the year, Disney's 'Inside Out 2,'" added Smith. "We have always known that female-identified leads would make money. This is not the result of an economic awakening but is due to a number of different constituencies and efforts — at advocacy groups, at studios, through DEI initiatives — to assert the need for equality on screen."
Other metrics suggested the gains in leading roles masked still-endemic disparity throughout Hollywood. The percentage of female characters in speaking roles... Read More