Streaming films top theatrical when it comes to diversity, new Hollywood study shows
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A new study shows that there is one place in Hollywood where diversity efforts have been successful — streaming films.
Released Wednesday, Part 2 of UCLA’s 2025 Hollywood Diversity Report has found that the proportion of women and people of color working in key entertainment jobs has increased since the previous edition of the annual study. The report also found that a majority of the top 20 streaming-only films released in 2024 featured diverse casts.
“People across the country support diverse films regardless of whether it’s in a theater or from the comfort of their couch,” Ana-Christina Ramón, the report’s co-founder and the director of the Entertainment and Media Research Initiative at UCLA, said in a statement. Part 1 of the 2025 Hollywood Diversity Report, released in February, similarly found that theatrical films with casts that reflect the diversity of the real world performed better at the box office.
Despite the popularity of films like ‘Wicked,’ opportunities for people of color in Hollywood declined in 2024, according to the latest UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report.
“Streaming platforms are one of the few places where the stories and faces that reflect the people of this country can be found on and off screen,” she added.
According to the study, one out of two leads were played by actors of color in the year’s top streaming movies. Broadly speaking, people of color as well as women in lead streaming film roles exceeded proportional representation.
Actors of color starred in 51% of the top streaming releases in 2024 (up from 45% in 2023). In comparison, actors of color accounted for 25.2% of lead roles in the top theatrical films of 2024 (down from 29.2%). People of color account for 44.3% of the U.S. population.
But when the actors’ demographics are broken down further, the study shows that Latinx and Asian actors are still underrepresented among lead streaming roles. Latinx actors accounted for 6% of lead streaming roles, while Asian actors accounted for just 2%. (According to census data, 19.5% of the U.S. population identifies as Hispanic or Latino, and 6.4% as Asian.)
Women, who represented 51% of streaming film leads in 2023, saw an increase to 61% in 2024. The study also found that while actors with known disabilities gained ground in 2024, they remain underrepresented on screen.
This latest UCLA study examined 100 of the top English-language streaming films released in 2024 as well as 175 film deals that were documented that year. Among the information analyzed were the demographics of the actors, writers and directors involved in the films and deals as well as movie genre and budget.
Much like the findings in the UCLA’s theatrical report, the streaming report found that women and people of color drove viewership of the top 2024 streaming films.
The study finds that women and people of color remain underrepresented in key creative and lead roles though they are a crucial demographic when it comes to viewership.
“Our data shows that diverse storytellers and actors draw in and engage people from every demographic,” Jade Abston, the report’s co-author and a doctoral candidate in cinema media studies, said in a statement. “They’re not just watching it — they’re sharing it with their social media followers and talking about it online.”
One key difference between streaming and theatrical movies, the study shows, is the overall budget of the films. The study found that while 65.5% of top streaming releases in 2024 had budgets under $20 million, 65.3% of theatrical films that year had budgets higher than that — 26% had budgets of $100 million or more. A mere 4.4% of streaming films had budgets in that range in 2024.
The report also found that the proportion of people of color in directing and writing roles on streaming films saw an increase in 2024. Thirty percent of top streaming films had writers of color, while 41% were helmed by directors of color. Women, on the other hand, saw a drop to 28% of directors and 37% of writers, from 31% and 41% in 2023, respectively.
Read the full report here.
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