The Cold Stats

The NYTimes, in a story last week about Tom Cruise, had a list of the top ten Hollywood actors, listed in order of the total gross of all the movies they've acted in. At the top was Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise was about number four, and the only woman there was Julia Roberts (sixth place I think).

That's pretty amazing. Since all top grossing movies have female as well as male leads, what this means is that the women are less instrumental, or to put it another way, more interchangeable as leads then the men are. Maybe not so surprising. The James Bond series comes to mind. James Bond stays the same (at least over a few years), while the Bond girl is different in every episode. Alpha male with (one of many) beautiful woman.

No, I'm not suggesting action is required. But it's something to think about.