Status and Consensus: Heterogeneity in Audience Evaluations of Female - versus Male-Lead Films

Stroube, B and Waguespack, D (2024) Status and Consensus: Heterogeneity in Audience Evaluations of Female - versus Male-Lead Films. Strategic Management Journal, 45 (5). pp. 994-1024. ISSN 0143-2095

Abstract

Extant research finds that status characteristics such as gender are frequently related to average quality evaluations by external audiences, but little is known about whether such characteristics are also related to consensus in quality evaluations. We examine 383 million film ratings by consumers to assess (1) whether female-lead movies elicit less consensus in quality evaluations than male-lead movies, and (2) the potential performance consequences for producers. We find that female-lead movies are rated lower on average, yet elicit ratings distributions with higher standard deviations. In split-sample analyses we find that male raters are more negative than female raters about female-lead titles, and that the two audiences differ on dispersion and skew. We also find that independent studios yield greater box office revenue from female-lead movies.