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I have spent a large portion of my adult life being angry about the disparity between men and women in the arts industry. That was until 2019. Because that\u2019s when I won a Tony Award for producing \u201cHadestown.\u201d Here\u2019s what I can tell you: Awards are nice, checks are better. It was a lesson taught to me through the years by many important industry heavyweights, including Whoopi Goldberg, an EGOT winner. In fairness, one might need to experience both to really understand the magnitude of that statement, but from my experience it\u2019s true (just ask Tom Cruise, who has only won the money).<\/p>\n
Obviously, there has been a fantastic leap in the number of female protagonists in the top 100 films \u2014 up from 31% in 2018 to 40% in 2019 \u2014 but women still only accounted for 10.6% of the directors of those top hits. Those statistics are magnified by the fact that only five women have ever been nominated for the Best Director Oscar (including Greta Gerwig in 2018 for \u201cLady Bird\u201d). What is interesting, however, is that \u201cLady Bird\u201d made $79 million at the global box office. And even though Gerwig\u2019s \u201cLittle Women\u201d (pictured above) did not<\/em> garner her a directing nomination, its earned over $110 million worldwide in the last month.<\/p>\n Even stranger, most women I know, who are not Academy nominators, overwhelmingly believe \u201cLittle Women\u201d is a better film \u2014 its 92% Fresh Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes seems to back up my sources (\u201cLady Bird\u201d only scored 79%). Only one female director has won an Oscar \u2014 Kathryn Bigelow for \u201cThe Hurt Locker,\u201d which made just $49.2 million at the box office. Oddly enough, most film-watching humans have much more of a memory for Bigelow\u2019s \u201990s classic \u201cPoint Break\u201d (yes, the one with Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves), which is still in heavy rotation on TV years later (ahem, residuals) or \u201cZero Dark Thirty,\u201d which made $132.8 million (and for which the Academy similarly snubbed her directing work). I wonder which film Kathryn Bigelow likes more?<\/p>\n Also Read:<\/strong> Oscars 2020: Women Scored Record 31% of Nominations Overall Despite Female Director Snub<\/p>\n In fact, if you try to name the 89 male Oscar-winning directors in the 90 years of the award or their movies, most audience members barely remember they existed \u2014 while Nancy Meyers lives in most American hearts. Elizabeth Banks has directed a formative movie of our children\u2019s future, as have Catherine Hardwicke, Betty Thomas and Patty Jenkins. Collectively, films with female directors such as \u201cWhat Women Want,\u201d \u201cPitch Perfect 2,\u201d \u201cTwilight,\u201d \u201cBrave,\u201d \u201cShrek\u201d and \u201cWonder Woman\u201d have made over $4 billion at the box office.<\/p>\n My kids, like yours, watch many of these movies on repeat, just as I watched the big-screen version of \u201cGigi,\u201d the first show I produced on Broadway. Ironically, that film was attributed to Lerner and Loewe when it won nine Oscars in 1958. As I later learned, the story was actually written by Collette and first directed on Broadway by Anita Loos. Together, the female team of writer and director cast and launched an ingenue named Audrey Hepburn, who went on to win countless awards on and off screen, and<\/em> accumulated a reported net worth of $100 million.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the point: Ladies, we have money. By 2020, women are expected to control $72 trillion, 32% of all wealth \u2014 up from $51 trillion in 2015. We don\u2019t need the man on the gold statue to come to our rescue. No number of editorials or angry tweets or catchy hashtags or awards will change the dynamic of women in film. The irony is the person who would have championed Greta Gerwig and \u201cLittle Women\u201d and made sure she had been nominated in previous years was Harvey Weinstein, so he could use it as bait for other potential hungry female directors (but that\u2019s another story).<\/p>\n Also Read:<\/strong> Record Number of Top Films Had Female Protagonists in 2019, Study Finds<\/p>\n For what it\u2019s worth, I practice what I preach. In 2005, When I produced my first stage musical, a revival of \u201cGigi\u201d, I made it a point to have the writer of this female narrative be a woman. The show thrived out of town and stalled on Broadway. That season\u2019s awards produced 93% male Tony nominations across all categories that were not gender-specific.<\/p>\n At that time, admittedly bruised, I committed to only produce or invest in work that had a female writer or director. Over the last five years, I\u2019ve kept that commitment. Some of my work has lost money, some has made money, some has been celebrated and some not. But in 2019 my two shows \u2014 one with a female writer (\u201cWhat the Constitution Means to Me\u201d) and another with a female writer and<\/em> director (\u201cHadestown\u201d) \u2014 achieved something remarkable: They paid back my investment. In additional to making me money, the latter also sent me a couple of awards. Yes, the award is impressive. It sits on my bedroom shelf, and every time I look at my Tony, I think: Awards are nice, and the impact of seeing women I\u2019ve championed succeed is amazing. But a growing bank account is the best, it can grow more shows.<\/p>\n