'KPop Demon Hunters' was a 'bright spot' in a year of declining diversity among streaming films, study finds

Diversity successful past year’s streaming films followed the aforesaid downward inclination arsenic theatrical releases, a caller survey found, with the percent of radical of colour directing, penning and starring films diminishing.

In past years, streaming was considered a much accessible outlet for early-career pistillate oregon BIPOC filmmakers, which was reflected successful information astir sex and radical representation. According to Part 2 of UCLA’s 2026 Hollywood Diversity Report, which was released Wednesday and analyzed each of the archetypal English-language films distributed connected large streaming platforms successful 2025, that inclination reversed crossed each class studied.

The stock of streaming films directed by women declined to conscionable implicit 23%, the lowest it’s been since 2022, erstwhile the yearly survey began analyzing streaming and theatrical films separately. Among those pistillate directors, an overwhelming bulk (81%) were allotted budgets beneath $20 million, portion much than a 4th of the films directed by achromatic men exceeded $50 million.

Only astir 31% of streaming films past twelvemonth had BIPOC directors, down 10% since 2024, erstwhile the proportionality much intimately reflected U.S. demographics.

“This is an manufacture successful flux — and successful reverse, particularly erstwhile it comes to diversification,” Darnell Hunt, UCLA’s enforcement vice chancellor and provost and the report’s co-founder, said successful a statement.

“Unfortunately, arsenic we’ve seen with theatrical films, we’re present seeing the interaction of this existent governmental clime successful precise meaningful and factual ways,” helium continued. “As budgets tighten, opportunities for filmmakers of underrepresented backgrounds are ever the archetypal to beryllium squeezed out.”

Despite losing crushed down the scenes and successful beforehand of the camera, women and radical of colour continued to thrust streaming viewership successful 2025, the study found.

The year’s biggest streaming hit, “KPop Demon Hunters,” was besides the most-watched archetypal Netflix movie of each time, and according to Neilsen ratings, it was astir streamed by women successful Latinx households, followed by women successful Asian and Black households. The study acknowledged the movie arsenic a “bright spot” successful a disappointing twelvemonth for diversity.

Michael Tran, a sociologist who co-authored the report, noted that the film’s interaction and net imaginable could person been adjacent greater with a theatrical release.

“It was a missed accidental for theaters,” Tran said. “We’ve tracked however divers films thin to win astatine the container office, present and abroad. For ‘KPop Demon Hunters,’ we could person been talking astir record-breaking container bureau receipts successful summation to topping the ratings.”

When “KPop Demon Hunters” did concisely surface successful theaters — for 2 days past August, with implicit 1,750 locations domestically and much than 1,150 sold-out screenings — it was the No. 1 movie that weekend, earning astir $18 cardinal successful summons income (though Netflix does not study nonstop container bureau figures).

Data from the study besides indicated that streaming films with astatine slightest somewhat divers casts tended to outperform successful presumption of assemblage and societal media engagement.

However, wide formed diverseness successful streaming films declined successful 2025. For the archetypal clip since 2022, films with a majority-BIPOC formed did not correspond the plurality of streaming titles. Most notably, the percent of pb actors of colour dropped from a precocious of 51% successful 2024 to 36% successful 2025.

Report authors called it an “industry-wide chilling effect” reminiscent of a akin diminution successful diverseness among theatrical films successful 2024. That said, streaming films continued to prima BIPOC leads much often than their theatrical counterparts, the survey found.

The wide fig of streaming films besides declined. While the yearly UCLA study typically examines the apical 100 original, English-language movies crossed streaming platforms, this time, determination were lone 89 for researchers to analyze.

In summation to studying contention and sex demographics successful the movie industry, the study besides examined on-camera representations of disability. According to the study, portion adults with a disablement marque up astatine slightest 26% of the U.S. population, actors with a known disablement represented 6.5% of full streaming movie actors, which is successful enactment with the erstwhile year.

According to the study’s authors, streamers hoping to vie successful a fast-paced, globalized marketplace should summation their diverseness efforts successful airy of these results.

“Kids nether 18 are already bulk BIPOC. There’s nary going backmost if a workplace wants to beryllium profitable and applicable to Gen Z and Gen Alpha,” said study co-founder and co-author Ana-Christina Ramón. “Severing each marque loyalty present volition lone marque it much hard to regain semipermanent subscribers successful the future.”