2023 was Hollywood's year of women, right? Taylor Swift's "The Eras Tour," Beyonce's "Renaissance: A Film," Greta Gerwig's "Barbie," and Elizabeth Banks' "Cocaine Bear" all raked in millions, hundreds of millions, and more than a billion for the movie industry.
Even before the incredible success of those films, Hollywood had been lauded for seemingly taking steps to increase diversity in its ranks. But new studies found that Hollywood is still failing to reflect America's actual level of diversity.
Let's see how the numbers stack up.
A diversity report from the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication, titled "Inclusion in the Director's Chair," looked at 1,700 of the top-grossing films over 17 years. The authors analyzed who helmed these major films and weren't impressed by the results. From 2007 to 2023, the top grossing films employed 1,769 directors — but only 107 of them were women.
The findings for underrepresented directors were grimmer. There was a ratio of almost 10 to 1 for men to women directors. The ratio of white men directors to underrepresented women directors was a massive 56.4 to 1.
Meanwhile, a San Diego State University report, "The Celluloid Ceiling," examined the people who filled major roles in 2023, including directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers. It found that 83% of the top 250 films this year weren't directed by women, and 94% didn't have women cinematographers.
Movies with multiple women in key positions were scarce, as well. While 72% of the top-earning 250 films employed 0 to 4 women in key roles, only 4% employed more than 10 women. In contrast, 5% of the films employed 0 to 4 men, while 75% employed more than 10 men.
Third up is UCLA's "Hollywood Diversity Report 2023," which inspected"'minority" actor representation in 300 high-performing 2023 movies. The authors considered "Black, Asian, South Asian, Native, Latinx, Black Latinx, Multiracial/Multiethnic, or MENA (Middle Eastern or North African)" people to be "minority" actors.
The report said that Hollywood films don't reflect the U.S.'s diversity behind or in front of the camera. Despite making up 43.1% of the U.S. population, these "minority" groups are 21.6% of theatrical film leads, 33.3% of streaming film leads, and only 36.1% of total theatrical film actors.
Hollywood, if you're listening, there are ways you can fix the problem. The authors of USC's report said that studios could create company-wide inclusion policies, develop pipeline programs, and set target inclusion goals. They also recommend "uncoupling lead and director identity," meaning that, for example, studios could start considering Black women directors for stories about white men protagonists. Not to mention, Hollywood could start paying entry-level positions a living wage so that all people, not just the privileged, can thrive in the industry from the moment they enter it.
KnowThis:There's nothing Hollywood loves more than making cash, but the industry is leaving money on the table. Findings show that America's audiences really do prefer diverse film content. Movies with casts comprised of 31% to 40% people of color made more money than films that had casts that were less than 11% people of color. Consulting group McKinsey & Company said that the industry could be making $10 billion more per year if it increased how much diverse content it put out.
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