Who would pass up $30 billion? Apparently Hollywood’s top decision-makers and gatekeepers.
Starting in 2021, consulting firm McKinsey released a series of reports exploring the representation and inclusion of historically excluded people in the entertainment industry. Along the way, analysts totaled the potential financial revenue Hollywood could earn if it adopted more culturally inclusive business solutions: $10 billion a year to close the black inequality gap, a staggering figure. 12 to 18 billion dollars to properly promote Latino professionals and consumers, and – in the latest report released today — $2 to $4.4 billion through more efficient exploitation of the Asia and Pacific Islands market.
The latter figure is calculated based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, according to which Asian Americans earn on average 30 percent more than non-Asian Americans, but spend 35 percent less in media. At the same time, McKinsey’s own survey of API consumers found that nearly half would spend more money (49%) and time (47%) on film and TV with more authentic representation . Simply put: Asian Americans have a lot of money, and they would spend more of it on the media if it reflected them better.
With films like Everything everywhere at the same time And Parasite and television series like Beef And Squid game With considerable awards and artists like Dwayne Johnson, Taika Waititi and Mindy Kaling on the A-list, it’s true that Asians and Pacific Islanders enjoy unprecedented levels of prominence and prestige in today’s pop culture. But there are a few caveats to keep in mind: For one thing, progress is relative — almost anything is better than a handful of major roles every few decades, especially when that representation includes characters like M . Yunioshi, Apu and Long Duk Dong.
Second, although IPA representation in film has increased from 3% to 20% in the 20 years between 2002 and 2022, 85% of this recent representation is in films produced outside the United States, and television Episodic saw similar trends. AAPIs (6.2 percent of the U.S. population) are still 50 percent underrepresented in content made in their own country (3.4 percent of lead roles in U.S.-produced films), which which means that the faces of APIs seen on screen do not necessarily reflect the experiences and perspectives of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders living here.
Additionally, the representation of APIs has a pronounced gender bias. Nearly half of feature films with API leads are action/adventure films (for films that grossed over $50 million, that number rises to 71%), and films with API tracks tend to be increasingly race-agnostic (instead of having narratives). specific to an API cultural experience), the more widely they are disseminated. For example, in the five years between 2018 and 2022, 76% of American films were released theatrically in limited quantities with at least…
