Despite the colossal success of Barbie, a film that pulverised the opposition last year, a new report, as reported on by Variety, shows that Hollywood is hiring fewer female directors than it used to.
Only 16% of the 250 highest-grossing films released last year were directed by women, down 2% from 2022.
Digging deeper into the report, it also points out that 75% of the highest-grossing films primarily employed men in the most important behind-the-scenes roles.
In the report we can see, among other things:
"Overall, women accounted for 22% of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors and cinematographers working on the 250 top-grossing films."
"That was a decline from 24% in 2022. Moreover, 75% of the top-grossing films employed 10 or more men in key behind-the-scenes roles, while just 4% employed 10 or more women."
The report also broke down what percentage of Hollywood was made up of women last year.
"In descending order women comprised 26% of producers, 24% of executive producers, 21% of editors, 17% of writers, 14% of composers and 7% of cinematographers."
Do you think this is a problem, and if so, what should be done about it?