UN, Geena Davis Institute Partner to Study Film Roles for Women

Geena Davis has long lent her starpower to advocacy for improved cinematic depiction of women and girls.  Now the United Nations has gotten on board, announcing a partnership with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media that will produce a study cataloguing patterns of depiction and stereotyping -- and breakthrough roles where they occur.  The study will be ambitious in scope, examining the top-grossing international movies in Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain and the United Kingdom.  Results are expected in 2014.

I'm not getting my hopes up. For the most part, the most successful of 2012's top-grossing films from U.S. studios again delivered superhero fantasies, lots of weaponry, and action sequences valued most by male teens and male young adults.  The good news is that some of these powerful heroes were female (The Hunger Games and Brave come to mind).

Here are the Top 10, with the date of release, name of studio, film type and rating.  The dollar figure is the gross; the next number is the number of tickets sold.

1 Marvel's The Avengers 5/4/2012 Walt Disney Adventure PG-13 $623,279,547 79,601,474

2 The Dark Knight Rises 7/20/2012 Warner Bros. Action PG-13 $448,139,099 57,233,601

3 The Hunger Games 3/23/2012 Lionsgate Thriller/Suspense PG-13 $408,010,692 52,108,645

4 Skyfall 11/8/2012 Sony Pictures Action PG-13 $289,600,000 36,985,951

5 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 11/16/2012 Lionsgate Drama PG-13 $286,039,065 36,531,170

6 The Amazing Spider-Man 7/3/2012 Sony Pictures Adventure PG-13 $262,030,663 33,464,963

7 Brave 6/22/2012 Walt Disney Adventure PG $237,236,938 30,298,459

8 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 12/14/2012 Warner Bros. Adventure PG-13 $222,703,000 28,442,273

9 Ted 6/29/2012 Universal Comedy R $218,665,740 27,926,659

10 Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted 6/8/2012 Paramount Pictures Adventure PG $216,391,482 27,636,204