In a world with thousands of cultures and languages, research shows audiences want diverse stories. Companies that provide those stories make more money. Do titles released in 2023 reflect audience preferences and expectations? Let’s see.
Using
box office receipts as the metric, titles released in 2023 with diverse casts are doing well. Compared to last year’s top 10 titles, DEI in films is improving. UCLAs
Hollywood Diversity Report for 2022 (HDR) indicated only one of the year’s top ten films (10%) had a cast or lead character, including persons of color. So far in 2023, those numbers have increased to six out of 10 (60%), an improvement of 500% over 2022.
2023 | Lead | 2022 | Lead |
---|---|---|---|
1. The Super Mario Bros. Movie | White | Top Gun: Maverick | White |
2. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 | Mixed | Avatar: The Way of Water | White |
3. Fast X | Black | Jurassic World Dominion | White |
4. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse | Black | Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | White |
5. The Little Mermaid | Black | Minions: The Rise of Gru | White |
6. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantomania | White | Black Panther: Wakanda Forever | Black |
7. John Wick: Chapter 4 | White | The Batman | White |
8. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts | Hispanic | Thor: Love and Thunder | White |
9. Creed III | Black | Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore | White |
10. The Flash | White | Sonic the Hedgehog 2 | White |
Source: BoxOfficeMojo.com (as of 7/11/23) & UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report 2023
The HDR noted that while the lead characters were white, eight of the top ten films had casts with greater than 30 percent minority. This mirrors their findings from 2019 and 2020.
It certainly looks that way. Titles released in the first six months of 2023 indicate studios and platforms are taking the research findings to heart and providing consumers with preferred content. For example, The Walt Disney Company announced they would release over 20 Asian titles by the end of this year. Their 2022 Corporate Social Responsibility Report revealed that 49.1% of its series and film casts were people of color, and 46.7% were women.
In its recent Environmental, Social Governance Report 2022, Netflix reported that it produced titles in more than 50 countries, in over 30 languages, with more than 55% of their casts having females as leads or co-leads, 47% of those being people of color.
Time will tell if this trend holds, but consumers in 2023 continue to respond positively to stories that reflect who they are and their cultures. Despite
criticism for adapting or telling more inclusive stories, studios and platforms forge ahead in their development. If the first half of 2023 predicts the future, they can take that criticism to the bank.
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