Key Points
Movies starring a Chris are more prevalent than ones with women over 60, a new study reveals.
The amount of projects with a talking animal is four times higher.
Emma Thompson is calling for progress and change.
A new study finds that talking animals and men named Chris are finding more opportunity on the big screen than women over 60.
Conducted by the Centre for Aging Better, the research from the Age Without Limits campaign revealed that, of the 100 highest-grossing films in the U.K. from 2023 through 2025, six starred a Chris actor as the lead character, while only five featured an actress above the age of 60 as the face of the movie. (To be transparent, one of the Chrises is The Zone of Interest‘s Christian Friedel.)
But the Chris numbers pale in comparison to the success and use of talking animals, who are four times more likely to be front and center in a film than a woman over 60.
Mary Steenburgen, Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, and Candice Bergen in ‘Book Club: The Next Chapter’
Credit: FIFTH SEASON, LLC/Focus Features
“Women are half the population and we get older. So where are the stories about us,” Emma Thompson, 67, said in reaction to the study. “The older we get, the more interesting we are. I want to see more films centre ageing women, we are compelling, relatable, and overdue for centre stage. Older women don’t need permission to exist on screen. They already exist in the world, cinema just needs to catch up.”
The only women over 60 to lead one of the top 100 grossing films over the last three years are Jennifer Saunders in Allelujah, Nia Vardalos in My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, Diane Keaton in Book Club: The Next Chapter, Demi Moore in The Substance, and Jamie Lee Curtis in Freakier Friday.
Meanwhile, it’s the usual Chris suspects (plus Christian!) who make up the list of hit Chris movies: Chris Pratt in The Super Mario Bros Movie, Pratt in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Pratt in The Garfield Movie (ticking two of the boxes), Chris Pine in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Chris Hemsworth in Transformers One, and Friedel in The Zone of Interest.
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Welp, sadly 2026 isn’t off to a better start. The top 10 box office performers of the year so far in the U.S. include one Chris (Pratt in Super Mario Galaxy Movie), one woman over 60 (Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada 2), and two talking animals (Hoppers and Goat). And that’s not even including whatever we consider Grogu!
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