BIGGER PICTURE

CAA Study: Diverse Casting Increases Box-Office Results

“People want to see a world that looks like theirs.”

A study commissioned by top Hollywood talent shop Creative Artists Agency found that films with a more diverse cast financially outperformed releases for less diverse films. The new data, compiled from the study of 413 theatrical films released between January 2014 and December 2016, will be announced during a private leadership conference Wednesday. The study reports the average opening weekend for a film that brings in a diverse audience—which researchers suggest is the result of having a diverse cast—is nearly three times that of the average for a film with non-diverse audiences. The study notes that films with a cast made up of at least 30 percent non-white actors outperformed the release of films that were not “truly diverse.”