The word of the year in entertainment seems to be “contraction” and according to a new study, the term can be applied not only to sluggish production numbers but also to Hollywood’s efforts on inclusion.
The report, by Professor Stacy L. Smith and the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative updates the organization’s longitudinal analysis of top-grossing movies. The investigation now covers the 1,700 top films from 2007 to 2023, and provides a specific look at the 100 top movies of 2023. A total of 75,328 speaking characters were evaluated across all 17 years of the study, which explores gender, race/ethnicity, LGBTQ+ identity, and characters with disabilities.
Fewer girls and women filled leading roles in 2023 compared to 2022 — the figure plummeted to 30%, on par with 2010 and a 14 percentage point decline from the year prior. The findings for all speaking characters reveal that little has changed for girls/women on screen in more than a decade and a half. Only 32% of speaking characters in 2023 were girls/women, compared to 30% in 2007. A mere 11% of stories were gender-balanced, or featured girls and women in 45-54.9% of all speaking roles. Less than 1% of all characters were gender non-binary in 2023.
“No matter how you examine the data, 2023 was not the ‘Year of the Woman.’ We continue to report the same trends for girls and women on screen, year in and year out,” said Stacy L. Smith. “It is clear that there is either a dismissal of women as an audience for more than one or two films per year, a refusal to find ways to create meaningful change, or both. If the industry wants to survive its current moment, it must examine its failure to employ half the population on screen.”
The findings on race/ethnicity show similarly lethargic movement. There was a significant increase among protagonists—37 movies, compared to 31 in 2022 featured an individual from an underrepresented racial/ethnic group in a lead/co lead role. However, while this is progress since 2007 (13 films) it is barely higher than the previous benchmark reached in 2021 (35 films).
Across all speaking characters, only two findings of note emerged. First, the percentage of White (56%) characters decreased significantly from 2022 (62%) and 2007 (78%). Second, the percentage of Asian characters in 2023 (18%) was significantly higher than in 2007 (3%), though on par with 2022 (16%). There were no other significant changes for any other racial/ethnic groups across 17 years. Overall, though, the percentage of underrepresented characters (44%) was similar to the percentage of the U.S. population that identifies with an underrepresented racial/ethnic group (41.1%).
Intersectional inclusion was also explored in the report. Girls/women of color filled leading/co leading roles in only 14 movies in 2023—a decrease from the 18 they led in 2022, but higher than the 1 movie in 2007 that featured a woman of color protagonist. Only 1 movie in 2023 starred a woman of color age 45 or older in a leading role.
The report also features an “invisibility analysis” that examines how many movies out of the 100 assessed were completely missing girls/women from particular racial/ethnic groups. In 2023, there were 99 films missing both American Indian/Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander girls/women. 81 failed to include even one Middle Eastern/North African female-identified character. Almost two-thirds (62) were missing Hispanic/Latinas and 56 failed to depict a Multiracial/Multiethnic girl or woman. 49 films did not feature an Asian girl/woman and 39 were missing girls and women who were Black/African American. As a point of comparison, 12 movies did not include any White girls/women on screen.
“The epidemic of invisibility has been left unchecked for years,” said Smith. “The result is that girls and women from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups continue to see their stories and their reflections erased in the most popular content each year.”
A mere 1.2% of speaking characters in the top films of 2023 were identified as members of the LGBTQ+ community. There has been no meaningful change in this figure since 2014. No transgender characters appeared across the 100 top films of 2023. Of the 60 LGBTQ+ characters included in 2023’s top movies, 20 were lesbian, 31 were gay, 8 were bisexual, and 1 was identified with another sexuality. There were 76 films in 2023 that did not feature even one LGBTQ+ character, similar to the 72 in 2022 without any LGBTQ+ representation.
There has also been no change in the prevalence of characters with disabilities. In 2023, 2.2% of all speaking characters were shown with a disability—virtually identical to 2015 (2.4%). Characters were most likely to have a physical disability (73%), compared to communicative (26%) and cognitive (23%) disabilities. There were 42 films in 2023 that did not feature even one character with a disability, lower than 2022 (54) but similar to 2015 (45). Most characters with disabilities were male-identified (72%) and more than half (55%) were White.
“When it comes to the representation of the LGBTQ+ community and people with disabilities there is one question for the entertainment industry,” said Smith. “What will it take to increase inclusion of these groups on screen and to diversify portrayals so they reflect the breadth and vitality of people who identify as LGBTQ+ and/or live with a disability?”
The study also focuses on behind the camera inclusion among key film personnel. For women directors, 2023 (12%) was not different than 2022 (9%) but does reflect change from 2007 (3%). Across 17 years, 6.5% of directors of the 1,700 most popular films were women. This reflects 98 individual women directors compared to 878 individual men. Women have directed a maximum of 4 films (Lana Wachowski, Anne Fletcher) across the time frame evaluated, while the top male-identified directors have helmed 18 movies (Tyler Perry), 14 movies (Steven Spielberg), 12 movies (Clint Eastwood), and 11 movies (Ridley Scott).
For both women screenwriters and producers, little has changed in 17 years. Of credited writers in 2023, women filled 15% of the positions, which was similar to the 16% of jobs they held in 2022 and not different than the 11% of writers who were women in 2007. Only 24% of producers were women in 2023, nearly the same as the 27% in 2022 and not different than 2007 (20%). Women composers reached a 17-year high point in 2023 at 9%, which was no different than 2022’s 8%, but significantly higher than the 0 women working as composers in 2007. Casting directors were also evaluated. Women held 74% of casting jobs across the 100 top films of 2023, which is a decline from the 81% they held in 2022 and the 86% of jobs filled by women in 2007.
The racial/ethnic background of directors was examined across all 1,700 films. In 2023, 22% of directors were from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, including 12 Asian directors, 8 Black directors, 2 Hispanic/Latino directors, and 3 Multiracial/Multiethnic directors. Overall, 16% of all directors were from underrepresented backgrounds from 2007 to 2023. Only 4 directors in 2023 were women of color, and filled a mere 2% of all directing positions across the 17-year sample.
The report concludes with a review of solutions that can increase inclusion in film. The recommendations offered focus on the processes and strategies that decision-makers can utilize that will overcome bias, primarily by incorporating criteria in decisions.
“The recipe for creating inclusion does not change from year to year,” said Smith. “We have advocated for the solutions in the report for several years, but unless executives and other decision-makers listen and make different choices, we will not see different results. U.S. state legislatures have taken aim against DEI, and the entertainment industry seems either too apathetic or too fearful to use the tools in their arsenal to reflect back to its consumers the world that exists rather than a skewed representation of the population.”
The study is the latest from the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative and can be found here.