Abstract
The world is diverse, and so should cinema be to accurately represent us. Unfortunately, we still see problems arise when a more diverse cast is chosen. For example, when Halle Bailey, a black actress, was chosen as the Little Mermaid, word of boycotting emerged. Has this choice influenced the success of the movie, or is it just a loud minority?
Our study delves into the influence of diversity on the success of films. By focusing on a wide range of movies from different genres, timestamps, and cultural backgrounds, we aim to provide insight into the correlation between cast diversity and movie success. The motivation behind our project is to reveal, perhaps, or predict whether a future movie will be successful based on the heterogeneity of its cast. This information can be useful for movie directors who are contemplating adding diverse crew members to their teams.
Datasets
This study is supported by the CMU Movie Database as well as the MovieLens Dataset from Kaggle .
A note on Ethical Risk
Our study is purely based on our curiosity to see whether having a diverse cast improves the overall movie experience for users; does it give the audience a more exciting and engaging experience?
However, although it is not our intention, we are aware that this analysis can be viewed as an ethical risk. For instance, we could end up with conclusions that may harm certain populations. Because of this, we have implemented a solution to arbitrarily group ethnicities into larger ethnic groups. This way, we cannot infer any conclusions about a specific population since they would be part of a much larger group.
Finally, we cannot stress enough that this project is in the scope of a data analysis course and is thus for academic purposes. Any potentially harmful result should be investigated significantly more closely and thoroughly in order to draw a meaningful conclusion.
Now, without further ado, let’s dive straight in by exploring the next page !