After Making $402M, 'Twilight' Director Slams Studio for Petty Gift: "They Gave Me a Box"
Twilight, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, was not only a box office hit, but also a cultural phenomenon. Here's what the studio gave the director in thanks for that success.
Inequality between men and women in the professional environment is not a new phenomenon. Developed centuries ago, this practice has migrated into the 21st century.
Moreover, this inequality affects more than just low-paid or unskilled labor. In the film industry, for example, women face the same problem. This affects not only actresses, but also female directors.
Catherine Hardwicke Slams the 'Twilight' Studio for a Mini Cupcake Gift
Catherine Hardwicke, the director of Twilight, criticized the studio, Summit Entertainment, for ignoring her contributions to the franchise's success. In an interview with The Guardian, Hardwicke said that despite the film's $402 million box office earnings, the studio "thanked" her with a mini-cake in a box:
“I walked into a room with all these gifts, and everybody was congratulating the studio, and they gave me a box. I opened it up, and it was a mini cupcake.”
At the same time, as Hardwicke points out, male directors who have achieved similar success are entitled to "a car, or a three-picture deal, or [the chance] to do basically whatever you want."
Hardwicke's experience is just one example of the systemic gender inequality problem in the industry. Despite the critical acclaim of her debut film, Thirteen, which has 81% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the pop culture phenomenon that was Twilight, the director faced disdain.
Female Directors Still Represent a Very Small Percentage of the Film Industry…
It seems that the situation regarding female directors is changing, in part because the female gaze in cinema is becoming more widespread.
However, according to Dr. Martha M. Lauzen, a researcher who has published reports on gender inequality in cinema since 1998, film production has not become much more favorable to women. For example, women accounted for only 16% of directors of the top 250 grossing films in 2024.
…But That's Slowly Changing
The low percentage of women in the film industry does not appear to be due to a lack of talented female directors. Heather Rabbatts, the chair of the women's rights organization Time's Up UK, offered two potential explanations for this disparity.
First, men simply don't hire women. The second is related to stereotypes surrounding the profession – for many years, women didn't see many other women in directing roles.
However, a small step forward is that studios are beginning to trust women with big-budget productions. Marvel, in particular, hired female directors and showrunners for projects like Black Widow and WandaVision.
And in the case of DC, Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman was the second movie in history directed by a woman with a budget of over $100 million.
