Diversity in a movie's cast brings better results at the box office, according to a UCLA study that found that the worst-performing films of 2020 also had the lowest percentage of minority actors.
In the report titled Hollywood Diversity Report: Pandemic in Progress, movies that had a cast made up of less than 11 percent of minority actors were found to have the lowest grosses, and movies with 41 percent to 50 percent minority actors had the highest median gross.
The top earners with diverse casts were No. 1 film Bad Boys for Life, which grossed $426 million, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), the fifth-highest grosser at $201.9 million, and Onward, which came in seventh with $141.9 million. The cast of Bad Boys for Life was more than 50 percent minority, and Birds of Prey and Onward had casts in the 41 percent to 50 percent range. However, these films hit theaters early in the year. Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, many others were delayed, making it difficult to compare to last year's numbers.
The study also found that of 2020's top 10 films, people of color were the biggest ticket buyers for six of them. Also, for the top films put on streaming services, movies with 21 to 30 percent minority casts drew the highest ratings among the Black, Latino, Asian and white audiences and the 18-49 age group. Onward drew the best streaming numbers, followed by Spenser Confidential, which had a 21 percent to 30 percent minority cast. Hamilton and Extraction, which had more than 50 percent minority casts, were third and fourth, respectively.