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Should we be surprised by the most profitable film of 2017 so far?

Flying below the high-profile summer superhero flicks and the latest blockbusters brought to you by Disney, one unexpected film is hanging on to the noteworthy title of "most profitable film of 2017" (thus far):

Jordan Peele's "Get Out."

[rebelmouse-image 19532246 dam="1" original_size="750x544" caption="The writer and director of "Get Out," Jordan Peele. Photo by Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty Images." expand=1]The writer and director of "Get Out," Jordan Peele. Photo by Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty Images.

"Get Out" wasn't just critically acclaimed and beloved by audiences — it also raked in cash at the box office.

The horror flick, which brilliantly explores the nuances of race relations and racism in today's America, brought in over $250 million in ticket sales around the world, a number that far surpasses its production budget of a mere $4.5 million.

The return on investment for "Get Out" stands at a staggering 630%, according to The Wrap, which considered overall budgets and box office results of the top-grossing films of 2017 for its analysis.

[rebelmouse-image 19532247 dam="1" original_size="750x493" caption="Allison Williams and Daniel Kaluuya, who star in "Get Out." Photo by Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty Images." expand=1]Allison Williams and Daniel Kaluuya, who star in "Get Out." Photo by Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty Images.

To be clear, "Get Out" isn't the top-grossing film of 2017. That honor currently goes to "Beauty and the Beast," which brought in $1.26 billion worldwide.

"Beauty and the Beast," however, was created on a $160 million production budget and included a costly global marketing campaign. While its return on investment is still impressive, exceeding 400%, it pales in comparison to "Get Out."

Should we be surprised by "Get Out" standing at No. 1?

On one hand, any film that can pull in those box office numbers from a budget that small deserves a round of applause.

On the other hand, the historic success of "Get Out" comes amid growing demands that Hollywood recognize and respond to the impressive financial feats of films featuring stories about people other than straight, white men.

Stars of 2016's "Hidden Figures" (left to right) Octavia Spencer, Taraji P. Henson, and Janelle Monáe. Photo by Kris Connor/Getty Images for Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Hollywood tends to see blockbusters led by women, people of color, and other marginalized groups as rare exceptions to the rule.

But in the past few years, evidence has shown that's not really the case at all.

"Every time there’s a success [of a film with a mostly black cast], it gets swept under the rug,” Jeff Clanagan, president of Lionsgate’s Codeblack Films, told The Washington Post in regards to 2016's "Moonlight." "It's almost like there's an asterisk on it. They chalk it off as an anomaly.”

Last year, "Hidden Figures" — a film predominantly led by black women — was the highest-grossing Best Picture nominee at the Academy Awards. In July, "Girls Trip" (again, starring all women of color), exceeded box office expectations; it has pulled in over $76 million globally to date.

Surpassing "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" as this summer's highest-grossing blockbuster, "Wonder Woman" is nearing the $800 million mark in global box office sales.

[rebelmouse-image 19532249 dam="1" original_size="750x548" caption="Gal Gadot, star of "Wonder Woman." Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images." expand=1]Gal Gadot, star of "Wonder Woman." Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images.

Audiences are hungrier than ever to see diverse stories on the big screen. Why isn't Hollywood listening?

A new report by the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism paints a bleak picture in terms of media representation across the highest-grossing films of 2016.

The report, which analyzed the demographics of speaking and named characters in the year's 100 top films, found that marginalized groups — particularly women, racial minorities, and LGBTQ people — continue to be underrepresented. For Hispanic women and people with disabilities, the numbers were downright abysmal.

It's not so much that audiences are choosing not to see films featuring these characters — it's more that those movies aren't being produced in the first place by a film industry overwhelmingly run by older straight white men.  

"Diversity is not just something that just happens,” Katherine Pieper, a research scientist at USC, told the Associated Press of the study. “It’s something you have to think about and aim for as an objective and achieve."

The data suggests studio execs would be wise to get out of their boxes and start making films for a more diverse audience. It'd pay off in more ways than one.

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American Cancer Society
American Cancer Society
Science

Meet the researcher shining a light on the “white lens” of medical AI in skin cancer prevention

How we can create equity for all communities?

All images provided by Adewole Adamson

It begins with more inclusive conversations at a patient level

True

Adewole Adamson, MD, of the University of Texas, Austin, aims to create more equity in health care by gathering data from more diverse populations by using artificial intelligence (AI), a type of machine learning. Dr. Adamson’s work is funded by the American Cancer Society (ACS), an organization committed to advancing health equity through research priorities, programs and services for groups who have been marginalized.

Melanoma became a particular focus for Dr. Adamson after meeting Avery Smith, who lost his wife—a Black woman—to the deadly disease.

melanoma, melanoma for dark skin Avery Smith (left) and Adamson (sidenote)

This personal encounter, coupled with multiple conversations with Black dermatology patients, drove Dr. Adamson to a concerning discovery: as advanced as AI is at detecting possible skin cancers, it is heavily biased.

To understand this bias, it helps to first know how AI works in the early detection of skin cancer, which Dr. Adamson explains in his paper for the New England Journal of Medicine (paywall). The process uses computers that rely on sets of accumulated data to learn what healthy or unhealthy skin looks like and then create an algorithm to predict diagnoses based on those data sets.

This process, known as supervised learning, could lead to huge benefits in preventive care.

After all, early detection is key to better outcomes. The problem is that the data sets don’t include enough information about darker skin tones. As Adamson put it, “everything is viewed through a ‘white lens.’”

“If you don’t teach the algorithm with a diverse set of images, then that algorithm won’t work out in the public that is diverse,” writes Adamson in a study he co-wrote with Smith (according to a story in The Atlantic). “So there’s risk, then, for people with skin of color to fall through the cracks.”

Tragically, Smith’s wife was diagnosed with melanoma too late and paid the ultimate price for it. And she was not an anomaly—though the disease is more common for White patients, Black cancer patients are far more likely to be diagnosed at later stages, causing a notable disparity in survival rates between non-Hispanics whites (90%) and non-Hispanic blacks (66%).

As a computer scientist, Smith suspected this racial bias and reached out to Adamson, hoping a Black dermatologist would have more diverse data sets. Though Adamson didn’t have what Smith was initially looking for, this realization ignited a personal mission to investigate and reduce disparities.

Now, Adamson uses the knowledge gained through his years of research to help advance the fight for health equity. To him, that means not only gaining a wider array of data sets, but also having more conversations with patients to understand how socioeconomic status impacts the level and efficiency of care.

“At the end of the day, what matters most is how we help patients at the patient level,” Adamson told Upworthy. “And how can you do that without knowing exactly what barriers they face?”

american cancer society, skin cacner treatment"What matters most is how we help patients at the patient level."https://www.kellydavidsonstudio.com/

The American Cancer Society believes everyone deserves a fair and just opportunity to prevent, find, treat, and survive cancer—regardless of how much money they make, the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, gender identity, their disability status, or where they live. Inclusive tools and resources on the Health Equity section of their website can be found here. For more information about skin cancer, visit cancer.org/skincancer.

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