Women making their mark in Hollywood behind the camera

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Wonder Woman, directed by Patty Jenkins, has just become the highest-grossing live-action film taking an estimated 609.8 million dollars on Friday.

It's broken box office records for a major motion picture directed by a woman.

Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. /VCG Photo

While Wonder Woman was smashing records set by Transformers: Age of Extinction and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Rough Night, the debut feature from director Lucia Aniello, was released as the first R-rated studio comedy directed by a woman in Hollywood in nearly 20 years.

So with the box office ringing with these major hits, is Hollywood finally about to give female directors the chance to enter the spotlight?

Break down barriers

Though some would argue that Hollywood remains a male-centric playground, female directorial talent has always managed to struggle to the fore.

Kathryn Bigelow's low-budget film, The Hurt Locker, made history by scooping six awards and she became the first woman to win a Best Director Oscar in 2010.

Directors Sofia Coppola and Ava DuVernay. /VCG Photo

Sofia Coppola bagged the Academy Award for best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation in 2003 and in 2017 her film, The Beguiled, made her the second woman in history to win a Best Director Oscar.

While Ava DuVernay became the first black woman to be nominated for best director at the Golden Globes in 2014 for her work on Selma.

Women directors ready to fight

Seven percent of 2016's top-grossing films were directed by women, according to research by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.

That represents a two-percent drop on 2015's figures.

One reason why the industry may not be so women friendly is the entrenched perception that female directors pose a greater financial risk.

But the recent strong performance of women in the industry has helped to raise awareness of gender equality and growing numbers of people are paying closer attention to female directors.

“It's not because there aren't a lot of women who have the skill set," said Zoe Lister-Jones, director of the film "Band Aid" which was made with an all-female crew. "It was more because even my female department heads were afraid to take a risk on someone who might not have as much experience as her male counterpart."

"I just knew that I had to push back against those fears," she said, "Because if we weren't going to take the risk then who is?"

And right now it seems that taking the risk is beginning to pay off in a big way.