Anthony Stokes on the death of the box office movie star….
Hollywood just isn’t what it used to be. To the untrained eye it may appear that the movie industry is financially successful because every five months a tent pole hits a billion dollars, but this is far from the case. In actuality Hollywood is making less per movie than it was even five years ago. It seems like every other weekend there’s a sure-fire hit that fizzles out and disappoints the studio. The Internship and After Earth came out back-to-back, both with a bankable pair of leads, and both sank at the box office. Five years ago if you told somebody that a Will Smith movie would flop they’d think you were pulling their leg. I even had a conversation with someone who thought I was crazy for saying After Earth wouldn’t perform very well. These recent flops are a red flag for something the studios don’t seem to get – actors aren’t capable of being the sole box office draw for a movie anymore.
What do Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise and Adam Sandler all have in common? At one point in their careers they were among the highest paid actors in Hollywood and any movie they touched debuted at number #1 every weekend. And lately, they have all headlined movies that have performed horribly at the box office. Whether it be over-saturation (Johnny Depp in Dark Shadows), straying away from formula (Tom Cruise in Rock of Ages and Adam Sandler in That’s My Boy), or regurgitation (Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in Bullet to the Head and The Last Stand respectively), these are all cases of once prominent staples of pop culture failing to get people excited about seeing their movies. I encourage anybody who thinks they know of an actor who sells a lot of tickets and re-examine their recent movies to see how successful they actually are.
Back in the day of the ‘Movie Star’ there was no real way of telling whether a movie would be good or not. There was no Rotten Tomatoes or IMDb, so people relied on trailers and big name stars to decide which movies to see. Going to the movies was also a primary source of entertainment. Now TV shows are improving, and even slightly above average home entertainment systems give the experience of a theatre without having to leave home. Not to mention with Netflix, Hulu and Redbox it’s no longer cost effective to go to the movies every weekend. A select few might go to see a movie just for its lead, but generally if people flock to a movie it’s because of brand recognition or word of mouth – not because who is starring in it.
Now there are exceptions to every rule. Robert Downey Jr. and Channing Tatum have both sold movies on name alone recently, but that’s because of good career choices and riding a line between familiarity and stretching their legs with different roles. Marketing teams need to strike a balance between a film’s lead, its premise and its creative team when promoting a movie, instead of just leaning on its lead to bring people in. Studios could also soften up their losses if they didn’t throw money at projects starring “big names” – such as Disney, who has spent a fortune on The Lone Ranger in the hope that Johnny Depp can help the Western adventure achieve similar box office success to the Pirates of the Caribbean series. Ironically, The Lone Ranger’s marketing features two massive train wrecks… and when the box office returns of The Lone Ranger are in, I’ll try my best to refrain from saying ” I told you so”.
Anthony Stokes is a blogger and independent filmmaker.
Originally published June 13, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
