Earlier this year, the University of Southern California published a report tracking diversity among the protagonists of the top 100 films of 2024. Now, the university has released a new report that expands on these findings to include diversity among all speaking characters, as well as the professionals working behind the camera.
Of the 3,803 speaking or named characters that were coded for apparent race/ethnicity across 2024’s top 100 films, 13.2 percent were Black. Black characters were the third most represented group on screen, following White characters (63.6 percent) and Asian characters (13.5 percent). The representation of Black speaking characters has remained virtually unchanged since the report’s first edition in 2007.
Among the top 100 films of 2024, 18 had no Black speaking or named characters. This number did not differ from 2023, but was higher than 2018 (13 films). Fifteen movies were at proportional representation of Black characters with U.S. population in 2024. This is a notable increase from 2023 (4 films), but a slight decrease from 2018 (17 films). Thirty-one films had a representation of Black characters that was above their share of the U.S. population.
Only 3 Black directors (2 men and 1 woman) worked across the 100 top films of 2024. This is notably lower than in 2023 (10 Black directors) and 2007 (8 Black directors). Across all editions of the report from 2007 to 2024, Tyler Perry is the top performing nonwhite director, with 18 movies over the past 18 years.
