Amid today’s heated streaming wars, it appears diversity is the secret weapon.
Women and people of color played a pivotal role in driving ratings for streaming films in 2023, even as they continued to face relatively limited opportunities and resources behind the camera, according to the second part of a UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report released Thursday.
The report, which examined the 100 highest-rated English-language scripted films released last year on major streaming services, found that women represented the majority of viewers for nine of the top 10 streaming releases and 17 of the top 20. Similarly, households of color were overrepresented as viewers for nine of the top 10 and 18 of the top 20 streaming films, including Netflix hits like Jennifer Lopez’s revenge thriller “The Mother” and the Kenya Barris-directed romantic comedy “You People.”
The findings echo the first part of UCLA’s diversity report, released in March, which found that women and people of color also drove the biggest box office winners of 2023 even as they continued to remain underrepresented in the film industry.
“2023 clearly shows that diversity in film makes good business sense at home and in the theaters,” Darnell Hunt, UCLA’s executive vice chancellor and provost, said in a statement accompanying its release. “Diversity isn’t an impediment. It’s a draw.”
The UCLA study found that the streaming landscape as a whole experienced a contraction last year, with the number of English-language films dropping by 28.6%, from 161 in 2022 to 115 in 2023, as studios scaled back projects and budgets in the post-pandemic era amid looming strikes.
Despite these cutbacks, the findings underscore the importance of diversity in attracting audiences, with films featuring diverse casts and crews, like Netflix’s Jennifer Aniston-Adam Sandler comedy “Murder Mystery 2,” drawing higher engagement and ratings.
Ana-Christina Ramón, director of UCLA’s Entertainment and Media Research Initiative and co-founder of the report with Hunt, noted that diverse content has particularly strong appeal to younger audiences, who have become more accustomed to seeing themselves represented in animated films and on social media. “This is how you keep subscribers: give them what they respond to and clearly want to see,” said Ramón.
Romantic comedy “You People,” starring Lauren London and Jonah Hill, was among Netflix’s top films of 2023.
(Parrish Lewis / Netflix )
For the first time in the report’s 11-year history, actors of color reached proportionate representation in starring roles for streaming films, making up 45% of lead roles — a significant increase from 33.3% in 2022. Women also reached proportionate representation as leads, although their overall presence in casts lagged behind. Films with a majority diverse cast accounted for more than a third of the top streaming films in 2023 (35%), up 10% from the previous year.
Behind the camera, streaming offers more opportunities for women and people of color compared with the theatrical realm. For directors of color, their share of streaming films reached 31%, compared with 22.9% for theatrical releases. Female directors also helmed a higher proportion of streaming films at 31%, almost double their share of theatrical films.
Still, financial constraints remain a significant hurdle. Female directors were more likely to work on lower-budget movies, with the vast majority of their projects costing under $20 million. In contrast, big-budget films remained predominantly the domain of white male directors.
“Creators that represent diverse backgrounds face a mixed bag,” said co-author and UCLA doctoral candidate Michael Tran. “On one hand, they have a chance to lead or participate in these streaming projects, but then the studios are putting on the brakes financially and there is less room to show success.”
With the entertainment landscape continuing to undergo seismic shifts in the streaming era and studios facing increasing pressure from Wall Street to show profits, the report’s authors conclude that investing in diverse content is not a gamble but a proven strategy for success.
“We know investing in diversity isn’t a risk,” said Hunt, who is also a professor of sociology and African American studies. “It should be considered a strategic business imperative if Hollywood wants to survive.”
You can read the entire report here.