Accelerate into action (movies)

What makes an action movie an action movie? An action movie can be defined as a “a fast-paced, pared down, goal-orientated, narrative structure”.¹

From 1995-2025 action movies only made up of 1,332 movies, beaten out by drama, comedy, documentary, and thriller/suspense, respectively.

But in that same period, action movies grossed $60,465,518,435 making it second to adventure movies² with $66,777,466,481. It’s worth noting that drama is the third highest at $37,727,901,915 which is about two-thirds of what action movies made.

You can see here are the movies from 1995-2024, the top grossing action movies each year (in ascending order).

2025 was removed here because the year is not complete.

It is most likely that 2020 is significantly lower due to the COVID-19 pandemic and overall closures in that period.

Here is the same plot reorganized in descending adjusted gross. And we can see here that the top grossing action movies between 1995-2024 are Black Panther, Jurassic World, Gun: Maverick, Men in Black, and Wonder Woman.

And of these movies, only 2 have female leads. There are some with supporting female characters but they are (often) the only female representation in the main cast.

How do we tie this back to International Women’s Day? Though actions movies overall is a boys’ club there are some stand out female characters in action movies.

Let’s celebrate action movies with (kick-ass) female leads. A few come to mind …

Michelle Yeoh is known for:

• Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
• Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

She’s got 56 credited movies as an actress, 41 of which are action movies. Her earliest dated movie was in 1984 and she has 4 movies in various stages of production.

Linda Hamilton is known for:

• The Terminator (1984)
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
• Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

She’s got 43 credited movies as an actress, 12 of which are action movies. Her earliest dated movie was in 1979 and she has 3 movies in various stages of production.

Sigourney Weaver is known for:

• Alien (1979)
• Alien Ressurection (1997)
• Avatar (2009)

She’s got 72 credited movies as an actress, 15 of which are action movies. Her earliest dated movie was in 1977 and she has 4 movies in various stages of production.

Charlize Theron is known for:

• Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
• The Old Guard (2020)
• Atomic Blonde (2017)

She’s got 57 credited movies as an actress, 23 of which are action movies. Her earliest dated movie was in 1995 and she has 5 movies in various stages of production.

Uma Thurman is known for:

• Kill Bill: Vol 1 (2003)
• Kill Bill: Vol 2 (2004)
• Batman and Robin (1997)

She’s got 58 credited movies as an actress, 23 of which are action movies. Her earliest dated movie was in 1984 and she has 3 movies in various stages of production.

This is a visualization of the count of action movies each actress has been in over her career.

Honourable mentions to:

• Viola Davis (Woman King)
• Angelina Jolie (Tomb Raider, Eternals, Salt, etc.)
• Sandra Bullock (Miss Congeniality)
• Jennifer Lawrence (Hunger Games)
• Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman)

Future thoughts …

• Lead roles vs. in the cast
• Director or other roles
• Delve deeper into subgenres:
  • Superheroes
  • Book-to-movie
• Intersectionality
  • Bechdal test

Sources

• IMBD, 2015-03-17

Footnotes

1. https://researchguides.dartmouth.edu/filmgenres/actionfilms

2. the very slight difference between action and adventure is that former is associated with a particular kind of scene or spectacle; whereas the latter implies a story.