03/16/2016 AT 07:25 PM EDT  is passionate about creating more roles for women, and it's not just because he happens to be married to an actress he admires.  "It's an economic rule that is broken over and over and over again and still it seems as though nobody pays attention to it," Hanks, 59, passionately told PEOPLE at the N.Y.C. premiere of  , which he and his wife,  , co-produced. "They write it off as a fluke, as an odd thing ... and the fact is, there's no reason for them not to exist."  This is precisely why Hanks and Wilson love the franchise  "Isn't that extraordinary? I mean she's breaking the mold in Hollywood," Wilson said excitedly. "When you look at all the movies that are out there, where are the women and where are women of all ages?"  They're in this movie. Vardalos told the  in January she wrote the sequel because "there is so little out there" for actresses of a certain age. "We have to write for each other."  "If you look at the  , it's demoralizing," Wilson, who has a role in the film, said while referencing the study that found diversity lacking in 2014's films. In fact, in the 100 top-grossing films of 2014, less than one-third of all speaking characters were female.  "So, I think it's empowering to have women in such major roles and also women who aren't just teenagers," she adds, referring to the cast of  As actors and producers, Hanks and Wilson said they work hard to fix this problem.  "Sometimes we actually go specifically, 'let's change the roles of this thing so it works that way,' " the  star said of creating more female roles. "But also it's being open to material that is about something other than the norm."  Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson  "Women are the holders of all the disposable income and yet nobody is marketing to us or giving us that power in terms of financing movies," Wilson added. "I think that there's a whole audience being ignored."  Of course, the pair won't just produce a movie simply to put women in the spotlight.  "They've got to be good movies, at the same time," Hanks clarified. "If you leave it up to the bean counter by and large and say, 'look, just slap some women in a movie, it doesn't matter if it's good or not, get it out there,' then when it doesn't do well, they'll say, 'see?!'  "The rule that says there's only so much room for women in movies is untrue, but I think everybody forgets that," he added.  This isn't the only thing the couple agree on. The couple finished each other's sentences at the premiere, and Wilson said producing these two films together (they also co-produced the original  ) was "so much fun."  And for them, art does imitate life. "It's just like this family is together – with the cast on screen. The family is together behind the screen too."  opens in theaters March 25.
The actor and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 producer talks about how he's creating more roles for women