
Since its beginnings tracing back to as early as the 19th century, the Film industry has substantially evolved to become not only a primary source of entertainment in our daily lives but also a central cultural pillar within our modern-day societies. With the development of new technologies, this growth has reached a global level, with filmmakers now capable of reaching audiences all over the world.
To highlight some key numbers: the global box office was worth $42.2 billion in 2019 (followed by a hard hit in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic). In the United States alone, the number of films produced each year since 2000 has grown by a factor of 4 from 200 to 800 in 2019.
Of course, the measure of the industry no longer comprises of box office numbers alone, with television series growing to hold a more prominent place in our daily entertainment since the 1990s, especially with the advent of streaming platforms such as Netflix or Prime Video. Today, with the majority of people owning at least one subscription to a streaming service, we find ourselves in the new era of "streaming wars". As it stands, Netflix (net worth: $40 billion), the primary propagator of the streaming way, retains its seat at the top with 207.64 million subscribers, the majority of which are located in the United States and Canada. It is followed closely by Prime Video with Amazon’s 200 million Prime service subscribers.
Clearly, the power of this medium today and its ability to reach audiences around the world cannot be overstated. However, while movies are primarily intended to be for entertainment purposes, it is important to note their additional role of acting both as a reflection and, at times, influencer, of society, its norms, and values.
Movies have become an essential part of our culture and our history. As such, they can also be seen as records of our past – clear reflections of the state of society at the time in which they were made. Within their individual plotlines, they portray contemporary values, trends, issues, beliefs held by society at that time.
Yet society is malleable. It evolves and changes over time. Accordingly, for each decade over the past 100 years, we see mainstream films reflecting the changing ideologies and norms of society. For an example of this change, look no further than the Bond film franchise. We need only consider the evolution of 007‘s villains to connect them with the political situation of the time.
Today, a new trend has emerged in the film industry, reflective of present societal changes. That trend is diversity and ignoring it could cost filmmakers millions in untapped revenue.
To understand this new trend, I have taken a data-driven approach to explore key aspects of the Filmmaking industry as they pertain to diversity.
I. Geographic Diversity of the Film Industry
As the origin of the development of the film industry as we know it, Hollywood has long dominated the global scene. Accordingly, the past decades have primarily witnessed the various states of American culture dominating the screen, reflecting notably America’s post-WWII rise to superpower status, culminating at their peak level of influence in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Since the 2000s however, a new paradigm has emerged on the international scene suggesting a waning American influence on the global political level as the world moves towards the new world order characterized by greater multilateralism. Thus, one of the facets of diversity explored in this analysis is the evolution of geographic diversity in filmmaking. Does the film industry reflect this political trend?
This is what we see when looking at the box office numbers of the top 20 countries measured by the size of their film industry in profit.

Setting aside the pandemic-related crash of 2020, two points immediately jump out:
(1) The incredible gap between the United States film industry and the rest of the world (as expected).
(2) The exponential growth of profits in the Chinese film industry, which is rapidly catching up to the United States.
Zooming in on the remaining countries, we see the following:

There is an overall positive growth trend across the board. Therefore, a more pertinent comparison when exploring the increasing geographic diversity would be to compare the grow rates of these countries since 2000, as seen below:

Interestingly enough, the United States ranks 3rd to last in annual growth rate over the past 20 years with an approximate growth of 4% in terms of new releases, and an average growth rate of approximately 2.5%, compared the top dozen countries which, while possessing significantly smaller industries, have all progressed at a minimum of 10% in annual box office profit.
Thus, the fastest growing markets in the film industry are all international, with China, India and Brazil dominating with an average of over 20% year-on-year growth. Consequently, these markets may present an interesting opportunity for filmmakers to distinguish themselves amongst their competitors, with a rapidly growing demand amongst international audiences for original content more reflective of their cultures and societies.
Of course, with the pandemic providing a boost to the already dominating streaming industry, geographic diversity should be all the more considered amongst the key players simply for the fact that markets outside of the United States have a significantly less competitive landscape in terms of number of service providers offering these services, as illustrated in the map below.

Already, Netflix has been riding the opportunity wave of geographic diversity by tapping into local industries and producing an increasing number of new content reflecting local culture and language, including popular hits and some of my favorites: Lupin (France), Dix Pour Cent/Call My Agent! (France), Casa de Papel/Money Heist(Spain) and Fauda (Israel).
II. Casting Diversity in the Film Industry
Zooming back in on American cinema, many articles have been published in the past years criticizing Hollywood for the last of diversity of its casting choices, with several movements starting such as #OscarsSoWhite in 2015, #whitewashedOUT in 2016, and multiple diversity representative associations of African American, Latinx, Asian, LGBTQ and other communities speaking out for their lack of representation.
Already, steps have been taking to create more balanced and representative casting, with films such as Black Panther and Crazy Rich Asians often cited as indicative steps in the right direction.
Therefore, this analysis explored the shift that has occurred in this regard since 2010, by examining the 100 top grossing actors in the last decade ranked by their "star score" – a statistic assigned to each actor based on the number of top-grossing films they have been featured in.

By 2020, the average star score for African American actors has gone up by 72%, for Native American/Alaskan Native actors by 36.7%, for Asian actors by 21.5% and for Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander actors from nonexistent to 377.5.
In addition, when comparing the top 3 grossing actors in 2010 compared to 2020 we see 2010’s lineup being: Robert Downey Jr., Taylor Lautner and Shia LaBeouf and 2020’s: Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson, Danai Gurira.
However, while important strides have been made, more progress still needs to be made in order to have a more inclusive and representative film industry that does not discriminate based on skin color or other factors. Indeed, there are still indicators that show that while the film industry has begun to cast a greater number of actors of different color, these also tend to still be cast in secondary and less important roles.
In performing arts, the measure of the importance of a role in a film is the billing number. As defined by Wikipedia, billing is a terms used in referring to the order and other aspects of how credits are presented for plays, films, television etc. Accordingly, the most important the role, the lower the billing number. However, this analysis shows that, over th past 10 years, the billing average of actors of color, in particular African American, Asian and Native American/Alaskan Native actors, as detailed in the chart below.

While that clearly shows that there is more room for improvements on a societal level, the dramatic shift that has occurred clearly illustrates the essence of the new diversity trend which has gripped both society and, by extension as a reflection of it, the film industry as a whole.
Filmmakers should eadeavour to embrace this trend, especially when considering that doing so will not only be for the betterment of society but, if judging by the revenues generated by such films, will be both profitable and may lead their Movies to attain cultural importance status.
III. Reception & Critical Acclaim
Of course, when discussing a new trend in the film industry, one aspect that must be explored is that of reception and critical acclaim. Accordingly, due importance must be attributed to film critics, the independent voices with deep knowledge of the artform that is the film and the industry as a whole, in addition to the inevitable mention of Academy Awards, widely regarded as the most significant and prestigious award in the industry.
Last year Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite made the headlines after becoming the first foreign language film to win the coveted Academy Award for Best Picture in the Oscars entire 92 year history. On top of that, Bong also won the award for Best Director which, while making less of a splash compared to the historic upset, was nonetheless significant, particularly in terms of the Awards becoming more inclusive, as he became the second Asian to win that award after Ang Lee who won it in 2005 for Crouchign Tiger, Hidden Dragon and in 2012 for Life of Pi.
With the Academy Awards being voted on by an American committee, with a dedicated category for Best International Film, the reality is that an increasing number of non-American films have been nominated for the main category of Best Picture in the past 20 years. With Parasite having finally broken the historic record, we are certain to see greater diversity in the selection in this next decade.
As it pertains to film critics, this analysis restricted itself to the the comparison of American versus non-American films from IMBd’s dataset of 1000 Greatest Films of All Time, and the finding showed that while the United States has the most films from an individual country (unsurprising considering its dominance in the industry), there was overall a greater number of of films from non-American countries overall, with the top countries being France, the United Kingdom, Japan and Italy.
Conclusion
The film making industry has experienced a transformative decade in the 2010s, not least of which have been the calls for greater diversity. With movies being a representation of the state of consciousness of society, the impressive reception to milestones reached in an effort to create a more inclusive and diversified industry highlight the broader social appetite for greater diversity. By tapping into this trend and responding to this appetite, filmmakers are bound to increase both their profits and the cultural significance of their work.
As this analysis has shown, by taking greater action for more inclusion and capturing this trend in their movies, filmmakers stand to differentiate themselves amongst their competitors on a geographic level, increase the cultural significance of their movies across the globe, as well as generate more profit by tapping into the desire of underrepresented audiences for greater representation and inclusion.
Of course, as an art form, movies are not simply representative. Through the incredible power and reach of this industry, in particular thanks to the development of new technologies, they also act as influencers and, consequently, can be used to transform perceptions and challenge their audience to question their opinions on any number of issues. Therefore, by capturing this trend and utilising the clear and apparent efforts to integrate diversity concerns into filmmaking, movies can take on the role of softly influencing societal norms towards lesser hate and discrimination, and greater acceptance and inclusion.
Check out the full analysis and the data sources on Github!