The most important shift has been demographic. Gen X and Boomer women hold significant box-office sway, and they are tired of being invisible. When a studio releases a film like The Farewell (starring Zhao Shuzhen, 76) or 80 for Brady (four legends over 70), they make money.

When 94-year-old Rita Moreno rapped on the West Side Story press tour, when 77-year-old Helen Mirren donned a mohawk for Fast X , when 80-year-old Jane Fonda got arrested for climate activism—they weren’t novelties. They were reminders that the female spirit is not a seasonal bloom, but a perennial force.

That logic has been obliterated.