Women are second class citizens in Hollywood and the best way to illustrate it is to look at the money — how it’s earned and how it’s distributed. Two very different pieces, Actress Salary Report in The Hollywood Reporter and BO of the ’00’s: The Top Grossing Female Helmed Film Women in IndieWire help illustrate the issue.
IndieWire points out that of the 241 films in the last decade that have grossed over $100 million only five! of them are directed by women. (Two more Shrek and Shark Tale — both animated — had women as co-directors.)
Here are the five:
Twilight directed by Catherine Hardwicke
What Women Want directed by Nancy Meyers
The Proposal directed by Anne Fletcher
Mamma Mia directed by Phyllida Lloyd
Something’s Gotta Give directed by Nancy Meyers
And to add insult to injury: “only 31 films directed or co-directed by women grossed over $20 million. Over 1,000 films directed by men did the same.”
WTF? I do like a Nancy Meyers film but please! I know it’s very complicated to dissect why women directed films don’t perform as well as films by men. Some of the reasons include subject matter and the fact that men would rather die than see a romantic comedy, and that in 2009 most of the women directed films still fall into the romantic comedy category.
This has got to change. Everyone knows it’s abysmal and unacceptable yet there are no clear strategies EVER put forward by people with power to improve the situation.
And compounding the issue is the release of the annual salary list of top Hollywood actresses. We all know that women make less money than men because most of the films that women star in (except for Angelina Jolie) have lower budgets because not too many things blow up which in turn leads to less marketing and advertising which in turn leads to lower grosses and then the outcome is: women’s movies don’t make money so let’s not make any movies that star women.
On the one hand I think that we are going to need many women to blow shit up to get any respect in Hollywood but then look at The Hurt Locker where Kathryn Bigelow blows lots of shit and people up. It still has not made a lot of money. So you can’t really win. Maybe an Oscar nomination will help. On the other hand I say fuck it. Let’s just make the movies we want to see and be better about figuring out how to get women to see them.
The list of the top earning actresses is quite predictable and all white. Most of the women are desperate for a hit. The general theme to me is that these women need better scripts. I’m tired of watching the same crappy movies rewritten over and over again. Give me a Kate Winslet or a Cate Blanchett film any day (and by the way neither of them is on this list.)
The list and my thoughts:
Julia Roberts – took a pay cut for her next film Eat, Pray, Love but is only one hit away from being back on top.
Katherine Heigl – all I know is that she has one more chance to save herself after the misogynistic The Ugly Truth. (I recently was watching the early episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and she is so good. She needs to find a movie worthy of her and worthy of us.
Cameron Diaz – she stays on the list because of Shrek, but please she needs a serious hit.
Reese Witherspoon – I kind of miss her. Where the hell has she been? Oh yeah, hanging out with Jake.
Jennifer Aniston – I expect to see more boring romantic comedies from her for another 10 years.
Kate Hudson – if anyone needs a career counselor it is Kate Hudson who is still riding on her one hit wonder performance in Almost Famous.
Meryl Streep – hope she’s buying a big truck to haul all the backend dollars she’s getting because they won’t pay her enough up front.
Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side and The Proposal move her back up to the top. Now no one remembers All About Steve.
Amy Adams – love her but Leap Year looks like a retread of the bad Hilary Swank film PS I Love You. It’s another January release and you know what that means. But I have only seen the trailer and it includes the line “I’m not going to die without getting engaged” which always makes me want to run screaming from the theatre
Rachel McAdams – I want her to star in a film DESPERATELY.
If actresses want better material they need to start looking for female writers/directors. Established actresses star in the first features of male directors all the time. Granted these films are usually packaged by agents. What you need is some sort of middleman/woman where the actresses can go to find the female directors and screenplays.
Forget the over 100 million dollar mark. The problem is that most women can’t get in the door, because all the traditional routes are closed. You can’t build your reel by directing commercials, because women are almost completely barred from directing commercials (it pays really well and the agencies won’t hire you). It’s impossible to get an agent before your first feature if you’re a woman. And if you make $15,000 first feature film like Oren Peli, there’s absolutely no chance that CAA will represent you and send your movie all over town to get you directing gigs.
The female audience is a tremendously underserved demographic and the talent is there. Eventually someone will figure this out and make a ton of money.
I love reading your roundups of where women are on the food chain, and here you have smart things to say as always. On the “better script” line, would be so awesome if we could get an expose done with top$tier women actors providing a qualitative analysis of the scripts they are given to read, in particular from the big studio folks. You always hear anecdotally that most of the stuff is fluff.
Have to say though, “hanging out with Jake” = low blow. Everyone else is described in terms of their careers, and I don’t see a reason to single Reese out for taking some personal time off (if that is what she’s doing). Every time Reese is profiled on TV (and the machine does love its Reese), she is described as a powerhouse, just like all the other women on your list.
And can I add a name? DEMI MOORE. I love her and can’t WAIT to see her in another film.
In the UK, it’s a legal requirement to pay women and men equally if they are doing the same job.
Anyhow…Scarlett Johansson, Uma Therman; look out for Yvonne Strahovski, Morena Baccarin and Gina Torres.
Rebeka, that’s actually a very good idea to have actresses talk about some of the roles they are offered (and turn down). Of course, the couldn’t name the script or writer. But they could talk about the type of characters in general, what draws them to a script, what makes them cringe. Elle magazine did a roundtable for woman directors, why not actresses?
I think the “men don’t like romantic comedies” is a short-sighted assessment. They love romantic comedies–if they’re made for and about THEM. Look at the success of Knocked Up and I Love You, Man. Basically the movies need to be male enough that they don’t have to feel ashamed to go see it. Because I think films about women that fall outside of the romantic comedy genre still suffer similar fates due to sexism. Even when it comes to children’s films (I’m terrified for the Princess and the Frog)
Could not agree more on most points. And yes – please more Rachel McAdams! So talented and charismatic. The problem for us RMA fans is that she’s in no hurry to reach the top. For her it seems to be the journey not the destination. Then there’s someone like Aniston who seems to realize she’s not going to have this huge career she hoped for on the silver screen and is willing to take most any job to stay relevant. Sorry to be unkind, but what is the point of making crap film after crap film (ones that don’t even pretend to be interesting) when you don’t need the money to put food on the table? Ego? Vanity? And all this leads me back to people like RMA. I’m sure her income is “paltry” compared to Aniston, and she seems very happy with that. It’s not about the money or the fame or the number of roles she can churn out. It’s about the range and quality. This actress is trying and I so admire that!