(Los Angeles) Films released in the United States on the platforms of streaming are more representative of minorities and have more female leads than those released in cinemas, according to a study published Thursday.
Films aimed at small screens are more reflective of American society, says the Hollywood Diversity Report, which notes that films with diverse casts achieve strong audiences.
Movie studios need to take into account changing audiences if they want moviegoers to keep going to dark rooms, say the report’s authors.
“Our research shows that diversity in movies is simply good for business,” says Ana-Christina Ramon, director of the Media and Entertainment Research Initiative at UCLA University, which produced the report.
Minority people “have saved the movie industry during the pandemic and are crucial in bringing the industry back to pre-pandemic levels,” she adds.
The report argues that increasingly diverse cinema audiences prefer more diverse films.
“The pandemic has normalized diversity on screen, not just in cinemas, but also at home,” writes one of the co-authors, Michael Tran.
“The hearings followed. If Hollywood backtracks on diversity in film, they will lose audiences to streaming and international films,” he adds.
A third of the films on the platforms of streaming had a minority actor or actress in the lead role last year, compared to just 22% of films released in theaters, the report points out.
And while actresses and actors shared more or less equally the main roles in the films of the platforms of streamingthe gap was 60-40 in favor of actors for films at the cinema.
The two most viewed films in streaming in 2022, Red alert And Encantowere both animated films about teenage minority girls.
The report, which studies the top 200 English-language films released in theaters and the top 100 English-language films released on streamingreleased a little more than two weeks after the raid ofEverything Everywhere All At Once at the Oscars.
The film collected seven statuettes, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Michelle Yeoh, who became the first Asian woman to win this ultimate cinema award.