Ladies, we have a lot to celebrate when it comes to women in the film industry. Over the past four years, the top film each year (and the top two films in 2016!) featured women in the lead role. If that's not something to be proud of, then I don't know what is, considering that research from San Diego State University's Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film indicated that male characters averaged 84 percent of protagonists in the top movies of 2013, 2014 and 2015.
So who were the ladies that ran the box office? You can probably already guess. Jennifer Lawrence topped the box office twice with her role as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games series, with Catching Fire dominating in 2013 and Mockingjay — Part 1 in 2014. Daisy Ridley reigned in Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015, and both Finding Dory and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story made their mark in the top spots in 2016, featuring Ellen DeGeneres as the voice of Dory and Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso.
Although this is a huge feat for women everywhere, progress still needs to be made in regards to women of color in the film industry. BuzzFeed reports that around 75 percent of female characters in major films are white, and as you can see from the facts above, all of the female leads in these box office giants were white women (or voiced by one). Of course, progress is made one step at a time, and right now, women are taking those steps to the top.