Movio, the global leader in data analytics for the film industry, and the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media at Mount Saint Mary’s University (the Institute) have teamed up to determine if what and who is presented on cinema screens affects who shows up for a film during its theatrical run.

Data Scientists at both organizations examined the following questions for the “I Want To See Me: Why Diverse On-Screen Representation Drives Cinema Audiences” White Paper:

• Does the presence of certain groups (Race/Ethnicity, Gender, Age) on-screen draw larger numbers of the corresponding audience?
• What negative or positive portrayals of certain groups are different viewers seeing in the most popular films?
• What portrayals of certain groups are child viewers seeing in the most popular films?

Although both organizations had explored these and other related questions in the past, combining their prodigious analysis capabilities enabled a deeper data dive at a scale neither had achieved previously.  On-screen data (the Institute) and audience demographic data (Movio) for the top 100 films (by box office) in the US were examined for 2018 and 2019.

“As we’ve said before, our goal is very simple: that the characters on screen reflect the population, which is half Female and incredibly diverse,” says Geena Davis, Founder and Chair of the Institute. “We know that increasing the presence of underrepresented groups in media can have a very powerful impact on shifting cultural perceptions. Our industry has a tremendous opportunity to foster inclusion in society by taking action to diversify who shows up on screen. As this new research shows, we have made progress, but we need to do better.”

“As the movie industry begins to recover from the effects of the pandemic, this research carries even more weight,” says William Palmer, Chief Executive and Co-Founder of Movio. “Diverse audiences can go elsewhere to find entertainment options that speak to them and their lives, so if cinema is to remain relevant and continue having a cultural impact, it must attract these audiences by delivering more representative content.”

Some highlights of the research include:

• People want to see themselves reflected on screen. Moviegoers being able to identify with the characters in a movie drives their attendance behavior. When there are characters of a certain cohort (group) this is likely to drive more moviegoers of the same cohort.
• The analysis shows across all films that the leading characters and audience are generally 50/50 Female/Male. This is encouraging considering in 2007 only 23% of leads were Female and in 2017 30% were Female.
• However it is worth noting that the more Female characters, the more Female the audience, and the more Male characters, the more Male the audience.
• The effect of genre on the percentage of leading characters Male vs Female was clear as well as the corresponding gender split in the attending audience. Action movies, most notably, regularly have well over 50% Male characters and well over 50% (and frequently over 60%) Male audience.
• The opportunity for Black, Asian and Latinx moviegoers to see themselves represented on screen is significantly lower than for White moviegoers. Several movies tally 100% of their characters as White with the majority having over 50% White characters. For the remaining four Race/Ethnicity groups, the majority of films are clustered at below 25% (if not 0%) representation on screen. This is significant considering people of color (Black, Asian and Latinx) comprise 37.8% of the U.S. population.
• Across the board in terms of ethnicity, gender, and age, the negative portrayal of characters from a certain group has little bearing on whether or not that group attends a movie.
• However, particularly with regards to race and ethnicity, the analysis again shows how minority audiences are given substantially fewer opportunities to even see characters from their racial or ethnic group on the screen, no less characters from their racial or ethnic group who are also not depicted negatively.

The research was also able to determine what demographic cohorts are being represented in films geared primarily towards children. Some key takeaways:

• The good news is that both Male and Female leads are roughly evenly split in terms of on-screen representation for films with more child visits, suggesting that young moviegoers are getting a fairly balanced representation of genders in their on-screen media consumption.
• However, when looking at Race/Ethnicity there is less of a balanced representation. White characters are very well represented in children’s films, with the majority of films having 50% or more White characters represented on screen.
• There is not the same level of representation for Asian or Latinx characters in children’s media as the vast majority of films moviegoers are bringing their children to see have no representation of these cohorts.
• For example, of all the titles analyzed, only six titles had over 18% Latinx characters, despite Latinx comprising 18.4% of the US population.

“When we consider the impact that the media children are exposed to can have, including in the cinema, it is vital for them to see from the beginning that fictitious worlds reflect the real world, and that they see themselves reflected on screen,” Davis states. “When you see someone like yourself reflected, you take in the message: ‘There’s someone like me, I must belong.’ It’s encouraging to see the progress we’ve made with gender representation, but we must show more diversity on screen, if we don’t show more diversity, we are contributing to the serious problem of racial inequity in our society today.”

Discover the full report here.

About the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media at Mount Saint Mary’s University
Founded in 2004, by Academy Award winning actor Geena Davis, the Institute is the only research-based organization working collaboratively within the entertainment industry to create gender balance, foster inclusion and reduce negative stereotyping in family entertainment media. “If They Can See It, They Can Be It.” https://seejane.org/

About Movio
Movio is the global leader in marketing data analytics and campaign management solutions, revolutionizing the way the film industry interacts with moviegoers. Movio is the world’s most comprehensive source of moviegoer data and has products designed specifically with the challenges of movie marketing in mind. Movie lovers at heart, it’s our mission to connect everyone with their ideal movie. Movio is a company of Vista Group International Ltd (NZX & ASX: VGL).