A study out of UCLA today is especially ironic considering that only a few days ago a different study by the University of Southern California revealed just how ridiculously white Hollywood really is.
Movies make significantly more money when half of their casts are not white people, says the new study conducted by UCLA's Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, as reported by The Associated Press. That means Hollywood's failure to place more people of color in top roles is actually hurting their wallets, and I think we all feel like Hollywood definitely cares about that.
The analysis shows that the best ratio for making money is to have exactly half of the eight top-billed actors in a film be non-white. Having more white people than that, or more non-white people than that, was associated with films making tens of millions of dollars less. Movies with a half white cast made a median of $122.2 million, while films that went either way in another direction made a median of $52.4 million.
The study analyzed films from 2014, and cited hit movies with diverse casts such as Lucy and Annie as evidence. Fast & Furious 7 was released in 2015 and wasn't part of the analysis, though the CEO of Sony Pictures told the AP he thinks the films success was largely "because of the diversity of the cast."
Hours after the study was released, Variety reported that Al Sharpton will lead a protest over the lack of black nominees at this year's Academy Awards on Sunday near the Dolby Theater, shortly before the ceremony begins.
