Black audiences made up 12 percent of the moviegoing population and accounted for 11 percent of movie tickets sold in 2019, the THEME report shows, roughly matching their share of the U.S. population overall. And according to the recent poll, which has a margin of error of 2 percentage points, 45 percent of those surveyed go to the movies because they want to see a specific film.
But Black moviegoers are not seeing themselves on screen as frequently as white audiences. The most recent edition of the Hollywood Diversity Report found that Black characters accounted for 15.7 percent of all film roles in 2019, while white characters made up roughly two-thirds.
Thomas points out that over the past few years, independent titles, including 2017 Best Picture winner “Moonlight” and “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” have given Black audiences more contemporary stories about the Black experience. Roughly half of Black adults said they would be likely to see an independent film.
Experts said the dearth of Black stories on the big screen isn’t for want of material, but comes from a lack of diversity in the highest echelons of Hollywood. Per the Hollywood Diversity Report, in 2019, 91 percent of film company chief executives were white, as well as 93 percent of senior executives and 86 percent of unit heads.
“There’s a disconnect happening,” said J. Christopher Hamilton, an entertainment attorney and professor at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. “From the C-suite on down, because of this lack of diversity, the lack of relationships with diverse content creators, diverse casting directors and diverse agents — you end up self-replicating everything that you're buying.”
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