NEW YORK — For years, scientists have stated a lack of diversity in Hollywood movies doesn’t just poorly reflect demographics, but it is bad business. A new study from the consulting firm McKinsey & Company estimates just how much Hollywood is leaving on the table: $10 billion.
The McKinsey report, published Thursday, examines how inequality contours the business and how much it ultimately costs its bottom line.
“Fewer Black-led stories have told, and when they are, those jobs have been consistently underfunded and undervalued, despite frequently earning higher relative returns compared to other possessions,” wrote the study’s authors: Jonathan Dunn, Sheldon Lyn, Nony Onyeador and Ammanuel Zegeye.
The analysis, spanning the years 2015-2019, was conducted within the previous six months and brought on earlier study at the University of California, Los Angelesat the University of Southern California and Nielsen. The business also interviewed more than 50 executives, producers, agents, actors, directors and writers anonymously.
McKinsey attributed at least a few of Hollywood’s slow progress to its complex and multi-layered business — an ecosystem of manufacturing companies, networks, vendors, talent agencies and other separate but intertwined realms.
But the absence of Black representation in top ranks of power plays a prominent part. The study found that 92% of film executives are 87% are in television. Agents and executives at the top three gift agencies are approximately 90% white — and also a striking 97% among spouses.
Researchers found that movies using a Black direct or co-lead are budgeted 24% less than films that don’t — a disparity that nearly doubles whenever there are two or more Black people working as manager, writer or producer.
Among other measures, McKinsey recommends that a”well-funded, third party organization” be made for a broader approach to racial equality. The movie business, it stated, is significantly less diverse than industries such as energy, finance and transportation.
Following the Dark Lives Matter protests this past year, McKinsey said it would dedicate $200 million into pro-bono function to advance racial equality.
