Hollywood has long stuck by the belief that having female leads in films means mediocre box office returns. The incredible success of recent films like The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Frozen slap that convention in the face, and the numbers prove it. FiveThirtyEight analyzed 1,615 films released between 1990 to 2013 to look at the correlation between "the prominence of women in a film and that film’s budget and gross profits."

They measured gender bias in films by using the Bechdel test. Developed by Alison Bechdel in 1985, the test requires a movie to meet three criteria: there are at least two named women in the film, they have to converse with each other at some point, and that conversation can't be about a male character. Not enough films make it through with flying colors, but those that do perform better at the box office.Their findings showed that movies passing the Bechdel test have a lower median budget than all the films in the sample, and that they make more money per dollar than films failing the test. FiveThirtyEight reports, "The total median gross return on investment for a film that passed the Bechdel test was $2.68 for each dollar spent. The total median gross return on investment for films that failed was only $2.45 for each dollar spent."Even if some of that difference is caused by lower budget films having a higher return on investment than more expensive films, it still looks like a strong indicator that women in prominent roles perform well.Via LA Times

Amy Ratcliffe is a writer for IGN TV. You can follow her on on Twitter at @Amy_Geek and IGN at alratcliffe