Small changes in how a film depicts sexual misconduct can add or subtract millions of dollars in box office revenue, according to new research from the University of Arizona. The study is one of the first to use large-scale film data to measure whether a social movement translated into a real shift in consumer spending.
As Phys.org reported, Nooshin L. Warren, an associate professor of marketing at the Eller College of Management, led the research. She analyzed revenue, casting and audience data from more than 1,500 blockbuster films and tracked depictions of sexual misconduct, female objectification and gender stereotyping across those movies. Her conclusion was that while the MeToo movement increased intolerance toward toxic behavior, audiences have been slower to accept new gender roles on screen.
"Economists see everything as supply and demand," Warren said. "If at any point consumers' perceptions about a product change, it can change demand, which leads to a change in supply. That means any social movement has the capability to be an invisible hand that disturbs market equilibrium. In this case, we wanted to know whether the #MeToo movement actually accomplished its goals, or was it just loud and generated a lot of buzz in the media?"
The MeToo hashtag is based on a term coined by activist Tarana Burke. It gained widespread public attention after actor Alyssa Milano used the phrase on social media in 2017 to encourage survivors of sexual violence to share their stories. Within a year, the hashtag had generated more than 19 million social media posts and had sparked legislative changes in multiple jurisdictions.
To measure the movement's effect on audiences, Warren and colleagues from Texas Christian University and the University of Oregon used a ChatGPT-assisted review process. The team provided definitions of sexual violence, harassment and exploitation, as well as gender characteristics like agency and strength, and had the AI program evaluate each of 1,523 top-grossing films on a five-point scale. The AI drew on media reviews, plot summaries, online discussions and other web sources.
Warren and her team then reviewed, verified and supplemented that data with more than 300,000 keywords from the Internet Movie Database representing prominent themes in each film. The review tracked depictions of sexual harassment and gender role representation while accounting for outside variables like seasonality, theatrical release windows and real-world scandals connected to cast or crew.
The researchers also conducted a demographic study of more than 4,700 U.S. moviegoers to understand which audiences were most likely to watch a given film. That allowed them to connect shifts in content to shifts in specific audience segments.
The study was published in the Journal of Marketing. Its findings suggest that Hollywood studios face a financial, not just a cultural, incentive to adjust how they portray gender and sexual conduct on screen. The research does not prescribe specific changes but establishes that audience spending patterns have already begun to reflect the values the MeToo movement sought to promote, at least in the area of sexual misconduct. Movement on gender roles, the researchers found, has been slower.
