Mental health conditions across 300 popular films: A research update from 2016 to 2022

The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has released two previous reports exploring the prevalence and portrayals of mental health conditions across the 100 films highest grossing films at the U.S. box office 2016 and 2019. The findings across both studies painted a grim picture: mental health conditions were erased, dehumanized, and stereotyped on screen. Less than 2% of all speaking and named characters in both years were depicted with a mental health condition and a majority of these characters were White, violent, and disparaged against. To continue our work in this space, we are providing an updated report that looks at the most recent representation of mental health across 100 top-grossing films in 2022.