McKinsey report on representation in Hollywood projects $30 billion opportunity cost

Who would pass up $30 billion? Apparently Hollywood's top decision-makers and gatekeepers.

Starting in 2021, consulting firm McKinsey released a series of reports exploring the representation and inclusion of historically excluded people in the entertainment industry. Along the way, analysts totaled up the potential financial revenue Hollywood could earn if it adopted more culturally inclusive business solutions: $10 billion a year to close the black equity gap, a staggering figure. 12 to 18 billion dollars to properly promote Latino professionals and consumers, and – in the latest report released todayconducted in collaboration with Gold House – $2-4.4 billion to more effectively tap the Asia and Pacific Islands market.

The latter figure is calculated based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, according to which Asian Americans earn on average 30 percent more than non-Asian Americans, but spend 35 percent less in media. At the same time, McKinsey's own survey of API consumers found that nearly half would spend more money (49%) and time (47%) on film and TV with more authentic representation . Simply put: Asian Americans have a lot of money, and they would spend more of it on the media if it reflected them better.

With films like Everything everywhere at the same time And Parasite and television series like Beef And Squid game With considerable awards and artists like Dwayne Johnson, Taika Waititi and Mindy Kaling on the A-list, it's true that Asians and Pacific Islanders enjoy unprecedented levels of prominence and prestige in today's pop culture. But there are a few caveats to keep in mind: For one thing, progress is relative — almost anything is better than a handful of major roles every few decades, especially when that representation includes characters like M . Yunioshi, Apu and Long Duk Dong.

Second, although IPA representation in film has increased from 3% to 20% in the 20 years between 2002 and 2022, 85% of this recent representation is in films produced outside the United States, and television Episodic saw similar trends. AAPIs (6.2 percent of the U.S. population) are still 50 percent underrepresented in content made in their own country (3.4 percent of lead roles in U.S.-produced films), which which means that the faces of APIs seen on screen do not necessarily reflect the experiences and perspectives of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders living here.

Additionally, the representation of APIs has a pronounced gender bias. Nearly half of widely released feature films with API tracks are action-adventure films (for films that grossed more than $50 million, that number rises to 71%), and films with API tracks tend to be increasingly race-independent (instead of having API tracks). narratives specific to a cultural experience API) the more widely they are disseminated. For example, in the five years between 2018 and 2022, 76% of US films released theatrically in limited quantities with at least one major API (i.e. The farewell) were considered race-specific, compared to only 37% of widely distributed features. This phenomenon of cultural invisibility is not shared by other racial groups; for example, McKinsey's 2021 report on Black representation in Hollywood found that Black-led films were twice as likely to be race-specific than agnostic.

Breaking down representation data – by gender, by producing country, by qualitative analysis – is particularly crucial for the generic identity known as IPA, which tends to obscure or outright erase the Pasifika (native Hawaiian) part and Pacific Islands) of the nickname. Half of API's 310 leading roles in 2018 and 2022 films were played by actors of East Asian descent; Pasifika's 17 lead roles over those five years were played by just five men, who were mostly in action films and were primarily Dwayne Johnson and Jason Momoa.

“As our research and analysis have demonstrated, leaders do not need to act out of altruism,” the McKinsey authors write of the reasons for improving representation on and off screen. “The reward for getting it right could have a real impact on the industry – and the prize will only grow.” Progress may not come easy, but when the increased richness of the narrative comes with a multi-billion dollar opportunity, the business case is clear.