The Struggle For Diversity In Hollywood:
Hollywood films are the biggest brand of entertainment in the world. While other entertainment mediums such as TV and video games are gaining larger and larger audiences Hollywood films set the standard for the entertainment industry. But there is a fatal flaw in the Hollywood system, the representation of minorities. In 2014 Minority lead actors in film and TV were underrepresented by a factor of more than three-to-one (Hunt, 2014).
The amount of money the goes in and is generated by these films is absurd. In 2015 alone we have already seen two films Furious 7 and Avengers: Age of Ultron gross above the billion dollars mark worldwide.
Traditionally Hollywood film studios were only concerned with the domestic gross of their films as that usually accounted from most of the revenue but According to Box Office Mojo both of these films made 67%+ of their revenue from overseas markets. This worldwide box office has been especially prevalent in recent years.
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dollars of revenue, followed by Japan with 2 billion U.S. dollars and then France with 1.8 billion U.S. dollars.” - Leading box office markets worldwide in 2014, by revenue by Statista
You would think with the increase in the global film market would cause Hollywood to try and appeal to these markets by incorporate actors from diverse backgrounds and cultures. While this has occurred slightly as seen above ‘minority’ actors are horribly underrepresented. Many believe this is because Hollywood big wigs are in the mindset that viewers want to see ‘nice looking white’ actors saving the day to escape from their
In 2013, Latinos accounted for only 4.9% of the roles in the top 100 films of the year. From the beginning, Hollywood had always been dominated by white men and women. However, as time progressed there was a very slight change in cultural and ethnic diversity. Though it is more likely now than ever to find a Latino or Latina in a Hollywood film, their roles are often small, stereotypical, and almost entirely unimportant. As if it wasn’t hard enough to get any role in any Hollywood film regardless of ethnicity, Latinos have to endure playing a harshly demeaning role. Latino men are often cast as comedic relief and play gardeners, janitors, or thugs. Latino women are often cast as maids or mistresses. Aside from this, when women are cast as mistresses they are often submissive to their white male partners, meaning that not only are these roles ethnically demeaning, but also sexist. Along with Latino female sexualisation, though, Latino men are also heavily sexualized. Both Latino women and men have to deal with the exploitation of their culture for stereotypical roles in a movie. However, these are only some of the vicious patterns that attribute to the everlasting ethnic misrepresentation in the biggest part of mass media, Hollywood.
The University of Southern California discovered that filmmakers have made little progress in casting more non-white characters. Even though the United States is becoming more diverse in culture Hollywood has not change from its roots. From (Sanathanam and Crigger, 2015) research the top 100 films in 2014 up to 75% of the characters were Caucasian. 17 of the top movies in 2014 featured non-white lead or co-lead actors (Out of 30,000 Hollywood film characters, here’s how many weren’t white section, para 1). Informs that Hollywood is not in a rush to change their ways to avoid diversity for Caucasians to share the fame with other ethnic groups. Hollywood is mindset is to keep Caucasians superior.
In the 2017 media article “How Fair is Hollywood” the main problem is the lack of inclusion that Hollywood has been using throughout their movies . This problem can be solved by having an actor play the role of the corresponding race of his/her character.As noted by Media Mix news in paragraph 1, the author explicitly describes “People have reported frustration with Hollywood’s casting process. That’s because they see non-white actors repeatedly kept out of the spotlight. There is also the phenomenon called “whitewashing,” when roles are written for minorities are given to white actors”. This indicates that people are being displeased by the fact that Hollywood has been doing negative things to put actors to play a different race from what
There are many talent actors who cannot get a good role in the movie because they are not popular enough to play the main role. Most of the film maker just care about how much money the movie can make for them, so they just need to get the popular actor in order to get a lot of viewers. In the movies, the main character usually is White people since the writers and directors believe that they will get more audience if the main cast is White people. Some people believe that the movie is for entertain, so the writers and directors do not have a social responsibility to avoid stereotyping ethnic characters. However, there are three factors that Hollywood writers and directors should take social responsibility to avoid stereotyping ethnic characters:
The 2016 Oscar nominations sparked a heated debate over why the show had only white nominees and prompted the academy to address the lack of diversity. However, it is imperative to note that the event only represents what is happening in Hollywood and the filming studios. If the industry does not give opportunities to the minorities to shine, they are not likely to appear in the Oscars. As several leaders in the sector of complained, the minority rarely get chances to work in front of the camera, which defines their presence at the award shows and not just the Oscars. Nonetheless, it is a diversity issue that deserves attention and should be remedied. It is a source of difference, especially in a country that prides itself as a multicultural nation. The Oscars should embrace the diversity that reflects the entirety of the nation and simply the majority. Moreover, such an action would demonstrate to be beneficial not only to the United States but also the Oscar Academy, which will be able to assess a wider pool of talent in the industry and ensure that the voice of everyone gets
The diversity in Hollywood top films is low compared to the U.S. population. A study from Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism shows that in the top 100 grossing films of 2013 fewer than 5% of the actors were Hispanic even though they take up 15% of the nation. Hispanics is one the fastest growing ethic groups in United States but yet they are barely seen in movies or televison.
Lack of diversity in Hollywood creates a huge problems. It really reflects those long remaining dialog regarding people of different groups. Not long Oscars highlighted those issue more importantly in absence of representative and commendation of people of color. For the second years in the raw, there may be no people of color in the twenty nominees with acting classes notwithstanding those great execution films. For example, “straight outta Compton” and “beast of no nation”. People of all race within Hollywood are speaking out against lack of diversity and demanding changes. Prior to the eighty-eight academy award a number of well-known member of the fill industry such as Jada Pinkett Smith and her husband Will Smith announced boycott
The 23 James Bond films produced by Eon Productions, which have grossed $4,910,000,000 in box office returns alone,[206] have made the series one of the highest-grossing ever. It is estimated that since Dr. No, a quarter of the world's population have seen at least one Bond film.[207] The UK Film Distributors' Association have stated that the importance of the Bond series of films to the British film industry cannot be overstated, as they "form the backbone of the
Films have the power to both influence and reflect society. The stereotypes prevalent throughout American culture are reflected in most films. While the United States is becoming an increasingly diverse country, this diversity is not portrayed within American cinema. Minority figures often occupy
(Kubba) This amount of money is unheard of when it comes to music or film. In comparison, the top most grossing films are Avatar and Titanic. (Internet Movie Database) The film Avatar earned $760 million within three years, and Titanic earned $658 million within six years, all of which are comprised of film earnings at the box office and home video recordings like DVD or Blu-ray.
With the media being more diverse now, while the movies and television programs portray characters of different races while being underrepresented in movies and TV shows. Many actors of different races were asked to play stereotypical roles from maids and immigrants to thugs and prostitutes in. This being a misconceptions about how different races are being portrayed in the media.
“Oscars So White” a phrase that began trending on social media sites after the 2016 Academy Awards announce their nominees for Best Actor and Best Actress, it was predominately white for a second year in a row. The movie industry is no stranger to controversy and since its inception it’s constantly been guilty of underrepresenting ethnic people. It’s evident that film is a type of mass media that has a certifiable amount of power to influence audience’s views, yet this platform constantly disregards the need for diversity in favor of stereotypes. Movies such as Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Scarface (1983), and Pan (2015) are all guilty of this. The depiction of non-American characters in Hollywood movies are constructed around racial
Unless there is an improvement in the industry, minorities will have a hard time finding work due to the continuous underrepresentation in film. (Pitman). Movies like Aloha, Niihau, Dr. Strange, and Ghost in the Shell are all great examples of white actors playing roles designed for people of color. “In 2014, just 12.9% of lead roles in 163 films examined went to minorities, a decrease form 16.7% the previous year” (Pitman). While minorities being featured in lead roles decreased from its already low percentage, it’s not a shocker why some believe white washing has impacted them financially and professionally. When asked about their thoughts on the subject a panel of
Throughout history, the American film industry undoubtedly collected evidence that it has a huge racial issue. Despite America’s changing demographics, Hollywood’s most powerful leaders still lack behind in responding to the demands for movies that reflect cultural and racial shifts. The demand for more culturally diverse movies has been increasing over time. There are many great actors and actresses who are struggling to survive in the film industry due to the fact that they are categorized as a minority. One community in particular who is struggling the most today is the Asian Community.
The table above is a descriptive statistics analysis of 30 random box office movies from 2016. The average domestic gross revenue is around 62.96 million while the average of the production budget is around 59.37 million. On average, all the movies stay in the theaters for about 73.5 days and in a mean of 2781 theaters.