Despite the pink halo cast by Barbieland, less than a third of 2023’s biggest films were told from the perspective of a female character. At 28%, it is even lower than the previous year’s 33% and the lowest percentage of movies with a female protagonist since 2017.

The study of last year’s top 100 grossing movies in the US shows that just 35% of all speaking characters were women, a decrease from 37% in 2022. Ten years ago, women held 30% of speaking roles. In 2002, when the study began, it was 28%.

In their analysis of more than 2,200 characters, researchers at San Diego State University found that more men than women had speaking roles in a staggering 77% of the movies. Only 18% had more female than male characters, and 5% featured equal numbers of female and male characters. The number of women in major roles remained at 38%.