Leading ladies, lagging ratings? Gender bias in evaluations of movies

Abstract The movie industry offers a useful context to study consumer-driven gender biases, as it enables observation of how the gender of leading actors, directors, and producers relates to movie performance outcomes. Using a dataset of over 5,000 globally produced movies from 1998 to 2008, we document a distinct non-linear relationship between female representation in leading roles and audience ratings. Specifically, ratings initially decline significantly as the number of female leads increases, reaching a turning point at approximately two female leads, beyond which ratings stabilize or slightly improve (convex pattern). This negative impact on audience ratings is driven by male viewers, whose presence diminishes as female representation grows. In contrast, professional film awards exhibit a concave pattern peaking significantly at two female leads. Further accounting for selection, we reveal that audience gender biases persist even after accounting for the selective attrition of male viewers from movies featuring female leads.