The economic case for equality in screenplays: The Bechdel test, female dialogue and box office revenue

Abstract

This article examines the question, ‘Does increased representation of women in screenplays and film lead to greater box office revenue?’ Employing a data set of 2343 films released between 1960 and 2018, we estimate fixed-effects regression models on North American and ‘international’ box office revenue, using two indicators of female representation: the percentage of female dialogue in a film’s screenplay and the Bechdel test. We account for other variables: inflation, film budget, genre and film runtimes. Our results indicate that including just one conversation between two female characters is associated with approximately 23 per cent higher box office revenue in the North American domestic market and 27 per cent higher box office revenue outside of North America. Not all representation is created equal: quality representation (in contrast to a ‘quantity’ measure of representation) has a more significant relationship with the box office. Contrary to often-stated beliefs that increased representation of women in film results in lower economic returns, our findings indicate that there is a significant economic benefit to increasing female on-screen portrayals.