Hollywood diversity in decline despite audience demand, study finds: ‘The writing was on the wall’
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A new study examining the top films of 2024 has found that Hollywood is backsliding on its diversity efforts.
The 2025 edition of the UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report, released Thursday, has determined that the proportion of people of color working in key entertainment roles dropped compared with their white counterparts in every area from 2023 to 2024. This is despite findings that also show that films with casts that reflect the diversity of the real world performed better at the box office.
“Last year, we celebrated some historic highs for people of color in the industry,” Ana-Christina Ramón, the report’s co-founder and director of UCLA’s Entertainment and Media Research Initiative, said in a statement. “But 2024 saw a widespread reversal, as film studios retreated from racial and ethnic diversity in front of and behind the camera.”
The latest UCLA study examined 104 of the top English-language theatrical releases from 2024 to analyze the demographics of actors, writers, directors and even ticket buyers. The study tracked global and domestic box office figures as well as film genres.
The study finds that women and people of color remain underrepresented in key creative and lead roles though they are a crucial demographic when it comes to viewership.
Researchers found that among the top films, those with more racially diverse casts tended to perform better at the global box office than those with less diverse casts. Films in which 41-50% of cast members were people of color — such as “Wicked,” “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” and “A Quiet Place: Day One” — were found to have the highest median global box office earnings. These movies also tended to be released in more international markets.
Similarly, the study determined that the majority of moviegoers keeping the industry afloat are people of color. Filmgoers of color were found to have purchased the majority of domestic opening-weekend tickets for seven of the top 10 films and 12 of the top 20 films released in theaters in 2024.
“Diversity is a key part of the big financial picture,” Jade Abston, one of the study’s co-authors and a doctoral candidate in cinema and media studies at UCLA, said in a statement. “Diversity travels. When a film lacks diverse faces and perspectives, it’s just not as appealing here and abroad.”
Despite these findings, the study shows that people of color remain underrepresented as film leads, directors, writers and total actors in these Hollywood films. Actors of color accounted for 25.2% of lead roles in the top theatrical films of 2024, which is down from 29.2% in 2023. People of color account for 44.3% of the U.S. population.
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The number of films directed by people of color also dropped in 2024 compared with 2023. Directors of color accounted for 20.2% of 2024 movies, compared with 22.9% of films the year before.
These findings come amid the contraction that has reduced the number of Hollywood productions and jobs as well as the current trend of companies and studios rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the wake of President Trump’s return to office.
“The writing was on the wall, as we previously saw the loss of executive positions and programs focused on diversity,” Darnell Hunt, co-founder of the report and the executive vice chancellor and provost at UCLA, said in a statement. “For the studios, it seems that it wasn’t about investing in what our data has shown to be profitable. They went with what they considered safe.”
The study did find some positive trends. After two years of decline, women accounted for 47.6% of lead performers in 2024 — closer to parity with men compared with 2023 (32.1% of leads). Meanwhile, female directors accounted for 15.4% of films in 2024, which is similar to the previous year’s findings of 14.7%.
Read the full report here.
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