Hollywood loses $10 billion a year over a lack of Black representation

[BUtterfield 8 41,664]

The entertainment industry’s slow progress to invest more cash in Black talent and creators in Hollywood is costing the industry billions, a McKinsey report released Thursday found.

The U.S. movie and television industry (not including sports or reality programming) is estimated by McKinsey to bring in $148 billion annually, and could increase annual revenue by 7% or about $10 billion a year by improving Black representation on-set and on-screen, according to the report.

Audience interest for diverse storytelling is on the rise, McKinsey found—between 2017 and 2019 alone, demand more than doubled for new television projects that featured casts made up of at least 40% racial and ethnic minorities.

However, Black-led projects are still “underfunded and undervalued” in Hollywood, according to McKinsey, despite the fact they often see higher returns than other projects.

In movies, Black representation roughly reflects the demographic makeup of the U.S. population (13.4% Black), but Black talent only makes up 11% of leading movie roles and are often limited to projects related to their race, which see less investment.

As for television, representation varies greatly based on platform: In 2019, 14% of lead actors on cable programs and just less than 12% on broadcast programs were Black, but shows with Black leads streaming platforms accounted for less than 5% of the industry total.

Black on-screen talent is also often limited in the types of roles available to them, McKinsey found: “When [studios are] looking for Black content, they’re looking for Wakanda or poverty, with no in-between,” one creative executive told the consulting firm.

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[bionic 50,108]

Black representation needs to be normalized in media. This quote really stood out to me:

4 minutes ago, BUtterfield 8 said:

Black on-screen talent is also often limited in the types of roles available to them, McKinsey found: “When [studios are] looking for Black content, they’re looking for Wakanda or poverty, with no in-between,” one creative executive told the consulting firm.

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[Bling 31,584]

I believe it, what's fascinating is seeing mainstream cable shows from NBC have more POC, LGBTQ, and female representation through storylines or just having the characters. It's a lot better than it was, but still room to grow. 

[PxA limited 741]

That’s why I’m not completely on board with The Little Mermaid thing for ex.

Cause it’s just a sell, without having to deal with the real problems in the industry. And if one day comes to that, they’ll say ‘we gave you the little mermaid haven’t we’ 😑😑

[Xoxo Adriana 15,040]

black + poc artists, actors/actresses, celebrities and personalities carry hollywood on their shoulders. we been knew