A recent Huffington Post blog article discusses the “Must See” Holiday films and how they stack up when it comes to female characters. As a public relations agency specialized in marketing to women, we were interested in what these numbers show. According to the list of seventeen films (as recommended by Common Sense Media), only 1 out of 17 has a female lead character. In fact, the article cites data revealing that the ratio of male characters to female characters in films hasn’t changed since 1946.

Why is it that a great film with a strong female character is called a “chick flick” but a film with a strong male character is just called a great film? When the film for the popular HBO show Sex & the City was released in 2008, it grossed almost $27 million on its first day, with total revenues charting in at well over $415 million. Women and their girlfriends made entire events of attending this movie’s opening. While it might be a special case seeing as how the characters already had a huge following from the TV show’s popularity, there is still something to be said about a film with strong female characters bonded in friendship.

More recently, the popular comedy Bridesmaids featured a female-dominated cast with strong female leads, but films like this are not the norm. With women holding 85% of the purchasing power in this country, it is obvious to us that wives, girlfriends, moms and sisters are the ones often buying the movie tickets. How many times are they dragged to movies with characters they don’t care about or worse, can’t relate to?

When will Hollywood take notice of the buying power of the purse?

FletcherPR is a national communications firm that specializes in reaching women through the power of media. Headquartered in Knoxville, TN with staff in Nashville & Los Angeles, we are a full-service agency providing strategic public relations, social media and marketing communications services to our clients throughout the U.S.