The representation of women directors of the top films at the North American box office dropped significantly in 2025, according to the latest study from the University of Southern California (USC)’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative.
The study found that only nine of the 111 directors attached to the 100 top US box office films last year were women – equivalent to 8.1%.
This is significantly lower than the percentage (13.4%) and number (15) of women directors of the top 100 films in 2024.
The report found that the 2025 figures were practically the same as 2008 – 17 years ago.
“These findings represent a complete reversal of any progress that was achieved behind the camera over the last few years,” said the report’s authors Dr. Stacy L. Smith and Dr. Katherine Pieper.
The nine women directors of top-grossing 2025 films include Nisha Ganatra
(Freakier Friday), Emma Tammi (Five Nights at Freddy’s 2), Domee Shi (Elio), Madeline Sharafian (Elio), Celine Song (Materialists), Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (I Know What You Did Last Summer), Maggie Kang (KPop Demon Hunters), Hikari (Rental Family), and Chloe Zhao (Hamnet).
Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., and Lionsgate did not hire a single woman director across the top films of 2025 evaluated in the study. Walt Disney Studios attached three women directors to top-grossing films in 2025 while Universal Pictures attached two.
The study, which also looks at racial diversity, found that 24.3% of directors of the top-grossing films were from underrepresented racial groups in 2025. Women of colour made up 5.4% of the directors, while 2.7% were white women, marking the first year since the start of the report that women of colour have outnumbered white women as top-grossing film directors.
Top-performing women directors across the 19-year sample were Anne Fletcher (4 films), Lana Wachowski (4 films) and Greta Gerwig (3 films). Twenty-one women helmed two movies each from 2007 to 2025.
Tyler Perry was the top-performing male director, with 18 different movies appearing across the 1,900-film sample. Steven Spielberg has directed 13 movies and Ridley Scott and Clint Eastwood have both directed 11 films each. M. Night Shyamalan, Jaume Collett-Serra, and Guy Ritchie have all directed nine films.
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