Movies

Hollywood diversity in decline despite audience demand, study finds: ‘The writing was on the wall’

BBG News

2024’s leading movies have been analyzed in a recent research, revealing a concerning regression in Hollywood’s push for greater diversity.

The UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report, published on Thursday for the year 2025, found that the representation of people of color in significant entertainment roles decreased compared to their white counterparts across all categories from 2023 to 2024. This comes as a surprise since research has demonstrated that films with diverse casts tend to outperform financially at the box office.

In a statement, Ana-Christina Ramón, co-founder and director of UCLA’s Entertainment and Media Research Initiative, stated that last year marked significant achievements for people of color within our industry. However, she noted that in 2024 there was a broad regression, as film studios began to step back from promoting racial and ethnic diversity both in front of and behind the camera.

2024’s UCLA research focused on scrutinizing the demographic makeup of actors, screenwriters, directors, and audience members from 104 top English-language films released globally. This study delved into the global and local box office earnings, film genres, and other pertinent details.

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The research indicates that there’s a persistent lack of representation for women and ethnic minorities in significant creative and leading positions, despite their importance as a substantial audience group.

It was discovered that among popular movies, those featuring racially diverse casts generally outperformed less diverse ones at the worldwide box office. Movies with a cast of which 41-50% were people of color, like “Wicked,” “Godzilla vs. Kong: The New Empire,” and “A Quiet Place: Day One,” showed the highest median global earnings. These films also typically premiered in a larger number of international locations.

It was discovered that a large number of moviegoers contributing significantly to the film industry are individuals from diverse racial backgrounds. In fact, it was found that people of color accounted for the majority of tickets sold during the opening weekends for seven out of the top ten films and twelve out of the top twenty movies released in cinemas in 2024.

In essence, diversity plays a crucial role in the broader financial aspect, according to Jade Abston, one of the study’s co-authors who is also a doctoral candidate in cinema and media studies at UCLA. In other words, diversity isn’t confined to a specific location; if a film fails to showcase diverse characters and viewpoints, it simply won’t hold the same appeal, not just locally but globally.

Although this research indicates some progress, it reveals that individuals of diverse backgrounds continue to be underrepresented as leading actors, directors, and writers in Hollywood films. In 2024’s top movies, actors of color occupied only 25.2% of lead roles, a decrease from the 29.2% representation seen in 2023. It’s worth noting that people of color comprise approximately 44.3% of the US population.

Hollywood Inc.

Disney Company announced that they will adjust their internal performance metric related to diversity and inclusion within executive remuneration packages. Their new focus will be on evaluating how these initiatives positively impact the company’s overall performance.

In 2024, there was a decrease in the number of movies directed by individuals of diverse ethnicities when compared to the previous year, 2023. In 2024, these directors represented approximately 20.2% of all released films, while in 2023 they accounted for slightly more at around 22.9%.

I’m speaking from my perspective as a supporter, and I find it disheartening to witness the shrinking landscape of Hollywood productions due to recent contractions. This contraction has also led to a decrease in available jobs, which is troubling. Moreover, there seems to be a concerning trend emerging, where companies and studios are scaling back their diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives following the return of President Trump to office. This rollback is disappointing, as these efforts are essential for fostering a more inclusive Hollywood industry.

It was clear from previous events such as the loss of executive roles and initiatives promoting diversity that this outcome might occur,” Darnell Hunt, co-author of the report and the executive vice chancellor and provost at UCLA, stated. “It appears that the studios prioritized what they perceived as safe options over what our data suggests could be profitable.

The research revealed some encouraging patterns. After experiencing a two-year drop, women represented about half (47.6%) of main actors in 2024, marking a significant improvement towards gender equality compared to 2023, where they accounted for only 32.1%. Simultaneously, the number of female directors remained fairly steady at 15.4% in 2024, similar to the 14.7% recorded in the previous year.

Read the full report here.

Hollywood Inc.

In addition to criticisms from conservatives about ‘woke’ entertainment, equity advocates find the resignation of four major Hollywood diversity executives quite alarming.

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2025-02-27 23:31

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