THB #847: Chick Habit
There aren’t enough women getting enough opportunity to make movies. I get that, but it’s not what I want to discuss here today.
As I was watching Toy Story 5 and realizing that the movie is not really about Woody and Buzz, but about Jessie (vs a female representation of tech), it occurred to me that since the run of Bob Chapek utterly fucking up Disney’s animation business (with support from COVID), we have seen a serious turn towards women being leaders at the box office in a serious way.
Sticking to animation to start, 8 animated movies released in 2024, 2025, and what we have of 2026 have grossed over $150 million.
Toy Story 5 is Jessie’s story, as she leads the group to re-connect a girl distracted by electronic media, with Buzz and Woody as side pieces.
Inside Out 2 is about a teen girl and her female-led brain.
Moana 2 is about a teen girl who is saving her culture with an assist from an egocentric macho man/demi-god.
Zootopia 2 is led by Judy Hopps with a co-equal male… but she drives story both times.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is about 2 boys “saving” 2 girls, kinda.
Despicable Me 4 is built around Baby Gru and the rest of the gang, with a new female villain.
Kung Fu Panda 4 continues to be about the goofy male panda and his quests.
Hoppers is about a young girl who ends up in an animal body, created by female scientists.
So we have 2 films (2 of the 3 longest running franchises) clearly led by male characters and 7 films in this elite group led by female characters.
Interestingly, the next box office tier down, $50 million - $149 million domestic grossers, has 10 animated titles in the 2.5 box office years.
The top grosser of the group is female-led. The Wild Robot is about a female-voiced robot who ends up living in nature. $144 million.
But after that, it’s testosterone central:
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Infinity Castle ($137m)
Migration ($128m)
GOAT ($103m)
Dog Man ($98m)
The Garfield Movie ($92m)
The Bad Guys 2 ($83m)
David ($90m)
Elio ($73m)
Transformers One ($59m)
It almost makes you feel bad for the boys!
I count 7 more major animated releases this year.
Minions & Monsters is the next one up. I read the Minions as male, but they remain sexually ambiguous in many ways.
Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie is for the under-12 set with a male boy lead.
Forgotten Island is very much led by 2 girls on an adventure and after a great reaction at CinemaCon, is pretty sure to be the #2 or #3 for the rest of the year’s releases, behind Minions and competing with Hexed. But in the $150m+ club.
Wildwood is a female-led Laika modern fairy tale.
The Cat in the Hat is a classic with a brother and sister following The Cat.
Hexed is the story of a young woman drawn into a literally magical world.
The Angry Birds Movie 3 is more male than female
2027 has a load of major sequels… 6.
Ice Age: Boiling Point
The Garfield Movie 2
Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse
Shrek 5
Untitled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem sequel
Frozen III
That’s a lot of testosterone, even though Garfield and the Mutant Turtles are really the 2 that don’t have much female energy balance within their movies. And of course, Frozen III will let girls go crazy and boys will tag along. I expect all of these to succeed.
Moving on to the live action side…
Again, in 2024, 2025, and what we have gone through of 2026 so far, there have been 78 live-action films that have grossed over $50 million domestic. (Numbers from the last months still growing… but have to pick a range)
44 of those films have had primarily male leads and have grossed $7 billion for an average of $159 million per film.
