According to a newly-released USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative study, movies with a white lead and a diverse cast are less successful at the box office than those with underrepresented leads. The study also shows that films with female leads do not perform considerably different at the box office in comparison to pictures with male leads.
Titled “The Ticket to Inclusion,” the study takes into consideration top 1,200 films released between 2017 and 2018. It does show, however, that movies with white leads or co-leads are given more marketing support, bigger budgets, and wider distribution than those with female or underrepresented leads.
“This study confirms our previous work indicating that the gender of the lead/co-lead character is not a significant predictor of box office performance,” says Dr. Stacy Smith, an author of the study. “Rather, it is other factors that are within the control of executives — production costs, promotion, distribution density, and the story itself that play a key role in a movie’s success. Moreover, films with leading/co-leading characters from underrepresented racial/ethnic backgrounds are a significant and notable predictor of economic revenue domestically. This is a finding that cannot be ignored and is consistent with what activists, advocates and artists have been saying for years. Stories with underrepresented leads/co-leads make money. Period.”
Internationally, movies with an underrepresented lead and a diverse cast perform the strongest, as audiences respond more positively to authentic storytelling and diverse communities. Conversely, films with a white lead in a diverse cast had the lowest international revenue.
“These results contradict longstanding beliefs about the economic viability of underrepresented leads overseas,” Smith stated. “Instead, the findings demonstrate that bias and exclusionary production and marketing practices are driving decision-making about leading roles rather than data regarding return on investment.”
There are of course a slew of factors that come into play when calculating a film's performance, including storytelling. Professor René Weber of the Media Neuroscience Lab at UCSB’s Department of Communication spoke on this saying, “The in-depth analysis of this unique dataset enabled us to better understand the factors that truly explain the economic success of films. In addition to the impact of inclusion variables we have learned that a good story still plays a major role in a film’s financial success and that factors such as animation as a storytelling style indirectly increase financial performance through stronger stories."
"Interestingly, our analyses show that star power exerts no significant influence in the U.S. and on international receipts," she added. "What exactly are the driving ingredients of a good story is the goal of our ongoing projects. Decision-makers can utilize these findings to understand how best to position their movies for success.”
For more on diversity in film, including a look at movies with female leads of color, visit The Wrap.
