Just three days before the Oscars, the 11th annual UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report noted an important milestone: For the first time in the report’s history, the top 2023 films were those with the most diverse casts.
Three franchise movies highlighted in the report — “Creed III,” “Scream VI” and “John Wick: Chapter 4”— featured “50 percent or more actors of color” and “posted the highest earnings in their film series,” according to the Hollywood Diversity Report 2024, Part I, released on Thursday.
Moreover, diverse moviegoers and women made up the biggest audiences for top movies: “People of color dominated opening weekend sales for 14 of the top 20 films in 2023, while women led the charge among ticket buyers with three films in the top 10,” according to the report.
“Barbie,” which features Oscar-nominated supporting actors America Ferrera and Ryan Gosling, claimed the top box-office spot last year with more than $1.4 billion globally. The “key to its opening success were women, who packed theaters and made up almost 70 percent of its domestic ticket sales,” the report said.
Yet they found that the share of female writers, lead actors and overall cast members dropped last year and that only three movies with female directors were given budgets of $100 million or more, compared to 25 films with male directors at the same budget level.
There were gains behind the camera: The share of people of color represented among lead actors, directors and writers was the highest in the report’s 11-year history. The share of theatrical films directed by people of color was 22.8%, nearly double since 2011.
Latino representation ‘has not improved’
Two of the top movies last year featured Latino actors — Tessa Thompson and Selenis Leyva in “Creed III” and Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera in “Scream VI.”
A co-founder of the annual report, Ana-Christina Ramón, the director of UCLA’s Entertainment and Media Research Initiative, said…
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