Earlier this year, researchers for UCLA’S Hollywood Diversity Report found that women and BIPOC audiences drove box office numbers in theaters. But, the impact of those demographics doesn’t stop there. The group’s latest Hollywood Diversity Report found that BIPOC audiences and women also drove viewer ratings for at-home streaming films in 2023.
For nine of the top 10 releases and 17 of the top 20 ranked by household ratings, women represented the majority of viewers for films such as “You People,” “Murder Mystery 2” and “Leave the World Behind.” Similarly, BIPOC households were overrepresented as viewers for nine of the top 10 streaming films and 18 of the top 20 streaming films, like “The Mother” (55.9%) and “You People” (50%).
“Increased diversity in front of and behind the camera continues to draw audiences in,” said Ana-Christina Ramón, co-founder of the report and director of UCLA’s Entertainment and Media Research Initiative. “It reflects the world we live in and will resonate more deeply with youth who are already majority BIPOC and who have become accustomed to seeing themselves reflected in animated films and content produced on social media.”
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Since 2022, BIPOC individuals in the industry have posted gains in all key Hollywood employment arenas in the theatrical film sector, like film leads, directors, writers and total actors. But, despite these gains, BIPOC individuals were still underrepresented in every major industry employment front last year.
The study found that in 2023, women lost ground in three of the four key theatrical film employment arenas – among theatrical film leads, writers and total actors.
People of color and women continued to find more opportunities behind the camera in streaming versus theatrical. The share of streaming films for directors of color reached 31.0%, compared to theatrical at 22.9%. Women’s share in streaming, 31.0%, nearly doubled theatrical (14.7%) and increased from 25.0% in 2022.
Streaming releases took a hit last year as the rapid expansion of streaming took a toll on studios, Hollywood strikes made an impact and the industry struggled to reach pre-pandemic numbers. The total number of English-language streaming films dropped 28.6%, from 161 in 2022 to 115 in 2023. Additionally, more than half of the top streaming film releases had budgets under $20 million compared to 30.3% of the top theatrical releases. Meanwhile, a quarter of top theatrical films had budgets of $100 million or more, nearly eight times the share of top streaming films (3.2%) in the same budget range.
Additional findings included that only two to three films from each household or viewer group’s top 10 streaming films featured casts where more than 20% of the actors had known disabilities. Further, 72% of top streaming films in 2023 were written by white writers.
The report looked at the top 100 English-language scripted films released in 2023 on major streaming, subscription platforms including Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Disney+, Hulu, Max, Netflix, Paramount+ and Peacock.
The study concluded by highlighting the fear that diversity will be the first thing to go in an era of uncertainty in Hollywood. The global movie industry is forecast to decline by 5% this year due to strike-related production delays. Additionally, there was a 17% drop in the number of workers employed at the end of 2023, with more layoffs expected across the industry this year.
“If Hollywood sacrifices the progress it made on diversity, how will it sustain itself? Any new version of Hollywood needs to prioritize investing in diversity in front of and behind the camera,” researchers wrote. “If movie studios disregard the findings from this report series that highlight the importance of giving increasingly diverse audiences the films they want to see, they do so at their own peril.”
The full Hollywood Diversity report is available here.
