POC representatives up 4% while women lag behind in diversity report

UCLA has released the 11th edition of its annual report Hollywood Diversity Report On Thursday, it showed a 4% advance for actors, since 2022, and filmmakers of color in 2023 while women took a huge step back.

Although people of color remain underrepresented in all film and television jobs in Hollywood, UCLA showed that actors, writers and directors of color have made the largest share of films surveyed since the report began. The share of theatrical films directed by people of color was 22.8%, compared to 16% last year and almost double the number in 2011.

UCLA also reported that the number of films with 50% or more actors of color reached 26.4%, which outpaces other percentile ranges.

Authors Darnell Hunt and Ana Cristina Ramone have long argued in the Hollywood Diversity Report that diverse films perform better at the box office, and pointed to data showing that films with 31 to 40 percent cast of color had the highest average gross in Box office in 2018. 2023. Films like “Barbie,” the highest-grossing film of the year, and “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” are among those that fall within this percentile range.

The range with the second-highest average box office gross was films that were between 41 and 50% POC, a group that included films like “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” and the “The Little Mermaid” remake.

“After studying global and domestic box office success and audience demographics for more than a decade, we have found time and again that people want to see films that reflect the diversity found in their communities and in the world,” said Ramon, co-founder of the company. Report and director of the Entertainment and Media Research Initiative at the University of California.

But the report also found signs of stagnation and even decline in Hollywood's diversity efforts. Only 16 of the top 200 highest-grossing films were directed by women, and only five were directed by women of color. “Barbie” was also one of only three films directed by women with a budget of at least $100 million, while 25 high-budget films were directed by men.

Hunt, executive vice chancellor and provost at UCLA, noted that there are warning signs that diversity initiatives may decline in the coming years, said executives with appointments at studios such as Netflix, Disney and Warner Bros, as well as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts. Scientists either resigned or were laid off over a 10-day period last summer.

“The question is whether this upward trend in diversity will continue,” Hunt said. “These gains are most likely the result of projects greenlit three years ago. We are in a different, highly politicized place, and with the disappearance of efforts and executives who championed inclusivity and equality from studios, will the next three to five years show a free fall in terms of diversity in Hollywood?”

You can read the full report University of California website.