Little improvement for female directors at UK-Ireland box office in 2024

‘Venom: The Last Dance’ and ’Back To Black’ were the top performing films will a solo female director credit at the UK-Ireland box office in 2024, both taking over £12m.

Kelly Marcel’s third instalment of the superhero film franchise starring Tom Hardy brought in £12.4m for Sony, while Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Amy Winehouse biopic currently stands at £12.3m for Studiocanal.

A total of 13 films were directed by women, with a further three co-director credits, according to Box Office Mojo’s list of the top 100 best performing films of 2024 (excluding re-releases or holdovers from 2023) in the territory.

In 2023, 13 were directed by women, with two additional female co-director credits. There has been little change in the number of female directors in the top 100 year on year, and no one has come close to Greta Gerwig’s Barbie box office result, which was last year’s best performer, taking over £95m for Warner Bros. Barbie broke the record for the highest-grossing film globally from a female director. 

Venom: The Last Dance and Back To Black are currently at number 22 and number 23 respectively in the 2024 top 100.

Disney’s Moana 2 is the best performing film with a female co-director credit. The feature is co-directed by Dana Ledoux Miller, alongside Jason Hand and David Derrick Jr, and has taken £29.8m at the UK-Ireland box office so far, sitting in eighth position for the year.

Also in the top 100 for 2024 was Kung Fu Panda 4, co-directed by Stephanie Stine with Mike Mitchell (£21.9m); Thea Sharrock’s Wicked Little Letters (£9.7m); Ellen Kuras’s Lee (£4.5m); SJ Clarkson’s Madame Web (£4.3m); Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance (£4m); Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla (£3.2m); Zoë Kravitz’s Blink Twice (£3.1m);  Nora Fingscheidt’s The Outrun (£2.4m); Gretchen Mallorie and Andrea Tran’s Peppa’s Cinema Party (£1.7m); Arkasha Stevenson’s The First Omen (£1.5m); Tarot, co-directed by Anna Halberg with Spenser Cohen (£1.4m); Rose Glass’ Love Lies Bleeding (£1m); and Ishana Night Shyamalan’s The Watchers (£985,000).

In 2022, 11 of the top performing films at the box office were directed by women, with an additional two receiving co-director credits.

• Screen critics’ top films of 2024