Walt Disney Company Chairman and CEO Robert Iger made an exciting announcement via Twitter while addressing the 4% Challenge, the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative and Time’s Up campaign pushing for producers, actors, studios, and more to announce a woman-directed project in the next 18 months. He revealed that 40 percent of Disney’s upcoming film slate will be helmed by women.
Many have contacted us about accepting the 4% challenge, but I’m proud to say 40% of @DisneyStudios’ upcoming movie slate is being directed by women and we are striving for more!
— Robert Iger (@RobertIger) January 31, 2019
This would mark quite a turn for Disney — or any studio, really. According to research from the Inclusion Initiative, only six of the top movies from 2007-2018 were women-directed Disney titles. Obviously that’s not great, but it’s par for the course compared to other major studios: Warner Bros. had the best track record with 12 women-helmed releases, Paramount had the worst with three.
Of the 100 top-grossing films of 2018, only four were directed by women. One of the them was Disney feature “A Wrinkle in Time,” from Ava DuVernay. The adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved novel was also the first film with a $100 million-plus budget to be helmed by a woman of color.
From the information we could find from Box Office Mojo, IMDb, and previous reports, only six of Disney’s slate of 50 upcoming films are confirmed to be women-directed or co-directed, or just 12 percent. Of course, most of these projects’ details have not been announced yet — the majority don’t even have a title, let alone a director — so it is possible that 40 percent of Disney’s future releases will indeed be helmed by women. Time will tell.
Three of Disney’s confirmed women-made titles are Marvel flicks. Brie Larson-starrer “Captain Marvel,” out March 8, is the first female-driven Marvel film as well as the first to be directed by a woman. Anna Boden co-directed with Ryan Fleck (“Mississippi Grind,” “Half Nelson”). Cate Shortland (“Berlin Syndrome”) will step behind the camera for the standalone Black Widow film and Chloé Zhao (“The Rider”) has signed on to helm “The Eternals,” which traces an intergalactic war between two alien races.
Hitting theaters November 22, “Frozen 2” is directed by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck. Niki Caro’s live-action remake of “Mulan” is scheduled for a March 27, 2020, release. Also on Disney’s slate is an untitled Pixar film from Domee Shi about a boy raised by lions. Shi made history this year by becoming the first woman to direct a Pixar short, “Bao.”
Time’s Up and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative started the 4% Challenge to increase the number of women, especially women of color, directing major studio films. A recent report from the Inclusionists concluded that women helmed just four percent of the top films from 2007-2018. Earlier this week Universal became the first major studio to accept the challenge. Its divisions, Universal Pictures, Focus Features, and DreamWorks Animation, will each unveil a woman-directed project in the next year and a half.
