The Latinx population buys a quarter of U.S. movie tickets but represents 3 percent of leading actors

A study released Monday by the University of Southern California's Annenberg Inclusion Initiative reports on the dismal state of Latinx representation in a survey of the top grossing films of the last decade.

Out of the 1,200 films surveyed from 2007 to 2018, only 3 percent of leading roles went to Latinx characters. Only 17 of those roles were for women, and actress Cameron Diaz (who has Cuban roots) accounted for 5 of 17.

Leading roles aside, things didn't look any better for speaking parts in general.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Out of a total 47,268 characters, Latinx characters started out the decade with 3 percent of speaking roles and ended at 5 percent, without much demonstrated evidence of continued increase.

The Latinx population in the U.S. leverages its $1.7 trillion in spending power to represent 23 percent of all movie tickets sales in the country. Given this information, the authors of the report wrote "It is surprising that the motion picture industry fails to court [the Latinx community] as a viable audience for their stories." Read the full report at USC Annenberg.