A pivotal cultural moment arrived in 2008 with Mamma Mia! . Here was a film starring three women—Meryl Streep, Christine Baranski, and Julie Walters—all well over 50. They were vibrant, sexual, messy, and the absolute center of the narrative. The film was a massive global box office hit, proving unequivocally that audiences would pay to see older women living complex lives. It was a commercial argument that Hollywood could no longer ignore.
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The trajectory is upward. As the Baby Boomer and Gen X demographics swell the ranks of the "older" population, the demand for authentic representation will only grow. We are seeing a trickle-down effect in screenwriting: younger writers are now proud to write "unlikable" older women, and award bodies (the Oscars, Emmys, and BAFTAs) are finally rewarding longevity over novelty.