A new study from the UK-based Centre for Ageing Better has laid bare a stark imbalance in cinema: top-grossing films are more likely to feature a lead actor named Chris or a talking animal than a woman over the age of 60. The research, conducted by the Age Without Limits campaign, analysed the 100 highest-performing films released in the UK in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
According to the findings, just five of those films had a female lead over 60. In contrast, six films starred a Chris—half of them being Chris Pratt in roles such as The Super Mario Bros Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3, and The Garfield Movie. The study also found that films were four times more likely to have a talking animal as the lead character than a woman over 60.
The five films featuring older women as leads were Allelujah (2023) with Jennifer Saunders, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (2023) with Nia Vardalos, Book Club: The Next Chapter (2023) with Diane Keaton, The Substance (2024) with Demi Moore, and Freakier Friday (2025) with Jamie Lee Curtis. Notably, Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, the second highest-grossing film of 2025 in the UK, did not qualify because Renée Zellweger is still under 60.
Industry and Public Reaction
The campaign has drawn support from Oscar-winning British actress Dame Emma Thompson, 67. “Women are half the population and we get older,” Thompson said in a statement. “So where are the stories about us? 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.” She added: “Older women don’t need permission to exist on screen. They already exist in the world, cinema just needs to catch up.”
Dr Carole Easton OBE, Chief Executive at the Centre for Ageing Better, called the lack of representation “absolutely ludicrous.” She noted that up to one in five UK cinema attendees are aged 55 and above, spending hundreds of millions of pounds annually. “The representation of older actors in major film roles is so disproportionate to the proportion of older women in the cinema-going audience, the lack of representation is insulting frankly,” she said. “Sadly, it is not just in cinema where this happens. In many forms of media, in many different employment sectors and parts of public life, the input of older women is minimised, marginalised and ignored.”
The Centre for Ageing Better also polled 4,000 members of the UK public. One in three people (33%) said there are not enough films featuring female leads over 60, compared to just 3% who said there are too many. Among women surveyed, that figure rose to almost two in five (39%).
The study, authored by academics at the University of West London School of Film, Media and Design, found that female characters aged 65 and over were more than three times less likely than men of the same age to appear in British films over the last decade. Women characters over 50 also spoke 14% less than older men in the sample. Researchers noted that empowered, active, and rounded older female characters were rare, with older women often portrayed as “passive, pitiable, ridiculed for failing to act their age and often irrelevant to the main plot.”
Harriet Bailiss, co-lead of the Age Without Limits campaign, said: “By failing to properly represent older people, and older women in particular, the film industry is actively participating in the pushing of older people to the margins of society. For many older people who have come to question their value through internalising the ageism they see around them every day in society, this lack of representation will reinforce the idea that older people matter less as they get older. No wonder so many women talk about feeling invisible as they get older.”
The findings echo broader concerns about ageism in European media and employment. As Young Europeans Pay Into Pension Systems They Distrust, Study Finds, the disconnect between older citizens' contributions and their representation in culture is a growing issue. Similarly, German Trust in US as NATO Ally Plummets, Defence Study Reveals shows how demographic shifts are reshaping trust in institutions across the continent.
The campaign calls on the film industry to better reflect the diversity of its audience, particularly older women who remain a significant and underserved demographic. As Thompson put it, cinema simply needs to catch up with reality.
