Beyond rom coms: How brands can engage today’s female film fans

Break out the popcorn! Cinema in the UK has just passed an exciting milestone as more Gen Z women than ever are heading to the big screen. 

Traditionally, heavy cinema-goers (those who go once a month or more) have skewed towards 15-34-year-old males, with 57% of this demographic being the UK’s most frequent cinema-goers. This is compared to just 36% of women in the same age bracket. 

But this year’s FAME data shows that now 60% of cinema-going women aged between 15-34 are heavy viewers – that’s a big leap that makes cinema a premium channel for reaching young women. 

Above: Recently there's been a slew of cinema releases with broad female appeal, including 2023's Barbie. 

There’s been a great slate of films with broad female (and beyond) appeal in recent years to attract female audiences, from Barbie blazing a funny, feminist trail in 2023, through to Wicked casting its irresistible spell last year, and Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy demonstrating a huge cross-generational pull this year. 

This is my point for advertisers - it’s curtains for tired, outdated stereotypes.

This strong run continues into the second half of 2025 with director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride, the John Wick spin-off Ballerina, and the return of Elphaba and Glinda in Wicked: For Good. Of course, us women aren’t only watching films targeting women specifically. We’re heading to the cinemas in our millions for movie franchises like Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, Thunderbolts* and 28 Years Later.

And this is my point for advertisers - it’s curtains for tired, outdated stereotypes. Soaring female cinema attendance is a bonus for female-led brands but also a huge opportunity for the not-so-obvious brands to reach an engaged, attentive audience – that's if brands rethink and reframe some of their creative and media strategies. 

Above: Female audiences are only attracted to films more specifically aimed at them. Movies like Mission Impossible also have a strong female following. 

Nearly half of Nintendo Switch players in the UK are female – double what that number was half a decade ago, while data from the Women’s Sports Trust shows 22.6m people watched women’s sport last year (both men and women) and 6.5m people watched both Barclays Women’s Super League and Premier League action. 

And if you think fast cars were solely the domain of fellas, did you know female viewership for Formula 1 has also zoomed up to over 40%? While 98% of women are involved in choosing which car to buy, and 90% have an interest in cars. So, while the predicted profile for Brad Pitt’s upcoming F1 skews 58% male, there is still an engaged 42% female profile that can be reached against stereotypical ‘male interest’ content. 

Better representation means better audience engagement, doubling down on what cinema already offers. 

What does all this mean? Well, sponsors of the UEFA Women’s Euros should consider putting cinema on their media plan for July. Neuroscience research shows that cinema ads can be especially strong at imbuing messages with personal relevance and encoding brand stories into the sub-consciousness, so it’s a fantastic opportunity to score a win. 

The rise in female attendance in this valuable age cohort also sends a bigger message to advertisers. It should encourage brands to think more about how they represent women in their own advertising. Better representation means better audience engagement, doubling down on what cinema already offers. 

Above: While Brad Pitt's new film skews more towards men, "there is still an engaged 42% female profile that can be reached against stereotypical ‘male interest’ content." 

There is work to be done on the visibility of women, particularly in ways or places not considered their ‘usual’ environment. For instance, one study of print financial services ads found that 84% of the hero figures were men, while only 15% featured women depicted as financially savvy.  

There is also uneasiness about the representation of women when they do feature in ads. 

There is also uneasiness about the representation of women when they do feature in ads. Recent Advertising Standards Association research showed 45% of consumers are concerned about ads that feature unrealistic body images of women (57% of women), while 44% worry about the objectification of women and girls, and nearly a third are concerned by the adverse stereotyping of gender.  

 Some brands are already on the front foot. For instance, Guinness ads feature women characters as the norm, and Derry Girls’ actor Saoirse Monica Jackson was the lead figure in the brewer’s Guinness 0.0% St Patrick’s Day campaign in Ireland.