Female actors of color had a banner year in 2022, according to the latest report from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, which found a “significant increase” in the number of top-grossing films with girls and women of color in leading and co-leading roles last year.
Overall, however, the report found that “the pace of industry change is certainly not a breakneck one,” and that any commitments the industry made to diversity and inclusion in recent years “were mere lip service when it comes to key roles on screen.”
The report found that in 2022, 16 of the 100 top-grossing films featured a girl or woman from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group in a leading or co-leading role. This was up from just 11 films in 2021 and from only one movie in 2007. The report, however, concluded that this was the “lone bright spot” in its findings.
Related Story
USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative Launches Study Of Hollywood's Depiction Of Abortion, Gun Violence & Marriage Equality
“The progress for women of color in leading roles is encouraging,” said Dr. Stacy Smith, co-author of the report. “It’s past time for the film industry to recognize that stories about women of color have a place in theaters. Girls and women of color are 20% of the U.S. population, but the film industry has not ensured that this is what audiences see on screen. With effort and accountability, this threshold is one that not only can be achieved but easily surpassed.” Her co-authors are Katherine L. Neff and Dr. Katherine Pieper.
Last year, women of color outnumbered men of color as leads and co-leads in the 100 top-grossing theatrical films. “This increase is an important one,” the report says, “as women of color have consistently and significantly been underrepresented not only as leads/co-leads, but as directors, producers, as casting directors, studio executives, editors, composers, production designers, costume designers, cinematographers, critics, and as characters. Ensuring that stories about women of color protagonists, as well as filling above and below the line roles with underrepresented women, is a critical way to provide access and opportunity as well as shift attitudes and beliefs in audiences.”
Overall, women, actors of color, and women 45 years of age and older remain significantly underrepresented in top-grossing films.
Even so, female actors have made huge gains since 2007, when the survey was launched. In 2022, 44 of the 100 top-grossing films featured a female-identified actor as lead/co-lead who drove the plot. That was up from 41 films in 2021, and more than double the 20 films in 2007. “This upward trend is notable,” the report says, “but still falls short of the U.S. Census benchmark, where girls and women comprise over 50% of the population.”
The report concluded that “optimism about positive change in film is unwarranted. Although there has been an increase in lead/co-lead roles for girls and women since 2007, there was no significant difference between 2021 and 2022,” and remains “almost identical to 2019. The advocacy and activism that may have fueled change in the mid- to late-2010s may have had a short-term impact, but more is needed to achieve lasting improvement.”
Similarly, for people of color in lead/co-lead roles, the report found that “there has been virtually no sustained change since 2018. While overall improvement since 2007 is evident, the last significant positive increase was from 2017 to 2018.”
Of the 100 top-grossing movies of 2022, 29 featured an underrepresented lead or co-lead – down from 32 a year earlier. In 2022, those 29 films featured 33 lead or co-lead actors from underrepresented racial or ethnic groups. That’s about the same as in the previous year, but more than double the 13 leads or co-leads in 2007.
The report found that last year, 36.4% of the leads or co-leads were Black, 21.2% were Asian, 18.2% were Hispanic/Latino, and 24.2% were multiracial or multiethnic. But “no matter which year is examined,” the report concluded, “the percentage of underrepresented leads/co-leads is notably below U.S. Census (40.7%).”
The report also found that ageism is still present in the casting of feature films. “Hollywood has long valued youth and beauty over experience,” the report says, “thereby putting a sell-by-date on women actors in their forties and beyond.”
Only 10 films in 2022 featured women as leads or co-leads who were 45 years of age or older at the time of their theatrical release. By comparison, 35 of the 100 top-grossing films depicted a man in that age bracket. “This calculates to a gender ratio of 3.5 films led/co-led by older men to every one film led/co-led by an older woman.”
And while the number of films that featured women 45 years of age or older as leads/co-leads in 2022 was up from seven films in 2021, it was up dramatically from only one film in 2007. Even so, the report concluded that “women 45 years of age and older are rarely shown as leads.”
“In sum,” the report says, “2022 did not reflect significant gains for women or people of color as leads/co-leads in top films. While women of color did trend upward, there is clearly more to do to ensure that industry-wide progress is achieved. 2022 was a year when box office did not fully rebound and when decision-makers hoped to compel audiences to return to theaters. Yet, it seems that focusing storytelling on women and people of color was not an avenue that studios aggressively explored. At the start of 2023, as executives plan for the future, it is time to make equity and inclusion more than a strategy but an underlying business imperative.”
The report also examined the employment patterns of the major film distributors, finding that “only two companies reached proportional representation when it came to girls/women in leading or co-leading roles. Moreover, none of the distributors achieved proportional representation when it came to underrepresented leads/co-leads. These figures demonstrate that the lack of progress for women and people of color as protagonists is not due to a single company missing the mark, but instead due to sluggishness that is industry-wide.”
Among the top-grossing films last year, Lionsgate had the highest percentage featuring female leads or co-leads (75%), followed by Paramount Pictures (55.6%); Universal Pictures (38.5%); Sony Pictures (33.3%); Walt Disney Studios (33.3%), and Warner Bros. Pictures (16.7%).
Among those same companies, Paramount, Sony, Disney and Warner Bros. each cast a third of their leads and co-leads with racially and ethnically underrepresented actors, followed by Lionsgate (25%) and Universal (23.1%).
Rounding out the other 100 top-grossing films, a total of 28 films were released by “other” companies, in which 57.1% featured female leads and co-leads, and 28.6% featured underrepresented actors. For the purposes of the survey, all movies distributed by smaller companies were coded as “other.” This year, Walt Disney Studios and 20th Century were grouped together. Subsidiary or specialty companies were categorized by their parent organization.
The report also offers several solutions to creating more leading roles for underrepresented groups. “The pathway to increased representation among leads/co-leads is one that requires change across companies. Our analysis demonstrates that distributors are not moving collectively toward equality. Rather, some companies have pushed forward faster in 2022 while others lag behind. This seems to be a trend from year-to-year; companies have not consistently ensured that half their films have girls/women in the lead, nor have they reached proportional representation for underrepresented leads/co leads.
“Only when every major studio and distributor reaches equity will we see industry-wide improvement. Doing so means that executives – particularly those with greenlight authority – must think about how each film they add to their slate contributes to reaching parity. This requires confronting biases that may be likely to limit how many films about women or underrepresented protagonists reach audiences. This includes perceptions about what or who is likely to sell at the box office. It also necessitates examining marketing and production budgets so that films by and about women and people of color receive more equitable distribution of resources. By critically evaluating the decision-making process and the way that stories are supported within a studio, companies can remove the barriers that prevent more films that star women and people of color from making it to the screen.”
The report also acknowledged the “limitations” of collecting data from only the 100 top-grossing films. “As with all research investigations,” it states, “some limitations must be noted. Across our annual reports, we focus on the most popular movies each year. This allows us to understand and reflect to the industry how the movies that reach the largest share of moviegoers represent the audience. However, films that are less popular may be more likely to feature protagonists from underrepresented communities or girls/women.
“Other researchers may want to explore whether this is the case, although we caution against drawing conclusions about box office success from such data, given how a multitude of factors apart from lead character gender or race/ethnicity can influence financial performance.
“Additional work should also explore whether the trends surrounding lead characters in film content on streaming platforms are similar to or different from those reported here. There may be differences between distribution models that reflect additional biases about audience preferences on the part of executives. Finally, while we explored the gender, race/ethnicity, and age of lead actors in this report, we plan to provide further insight into LGBTQIA+ representation and the inclusion of characters with disabilities in our Inequality in Popular Films report, to be released later this year.”
Must Read Stories
Ryan Seacrest To Leave ‘Live With Kelly And Ryan’; Replacement Revealed
Kristen Stewart Jury Conference, Zelensky To Livestream At Opening
Mixed Picture For Paramount & Hasbro Following Q4 Earnings
Iconic Actress Dies At 82: Video Clips, Photo Gallery, Reactions & Obituary
Read More About:
Source: Read Full Article