Posted on 08/21/2009 3:03:59 AM PDT by abb
The spring and summer box office has murdered megawatt stars like Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts, Eddie Murphy, John Travolta, Russell Crowe, Tom Hanks, Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell.
Can Brad Pitt escape?
A-list movie stars have long been measured by their ability to fill theaters on opening weekend. But never have so many failed to deliver, resulting in some rare soul-searching by motion picture studios about why the old formula isn’t working — and a great deal of anxiety among stars (and agents) about the potential vaporization of their $20 million paychecks.
“The cratering of films with big stars is astounding,” said Peter Guber, the former chairman of Sony Pictures who is now a producer and industry elder statesman. “These supertalented people are failing to aggregate a large audience, and everybody is looking for answers.”
Mr. Guber added, “Even Johnny Depp” — starring in the drama “Public Enemies” — “didn’t exactly deliver a phenomenal result.” (The A-list results may be damped partly because Will Smith, a regular summer powerhouse, had no movie open this season.)
Mr. Ferrell bombed in “Land of the Lost,” a $100 million comedy that sold only $49 million in tickets in North America. Ms. Roberts missed with “Duplicity,” a $60 million thriller that attracted $40.6 million. “Angels & Demons” (Mr. Hanks) was soft. The same for “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3” (Mr. Washington and Mr. Travolta).
“Imagine That,” starring Mr. Murphy, was such a disaster that Paramount Pictures had to take a write-down. Mr. Sandler? His “Funny People” limped out of the gate and then collapsed. Some of these may simply have not been very good, but an A-list star is supposed to overcome that.
The gradual trend away from big-star vehicles in the summer has been under way for years.
snip
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
And don’t forget how theatres have let the in-seat experience go to crap.
I HATE the behavior of TOO MANY of my fellow patrons.
STFU (excuse me) during the movie!!!!
About time.
Don’t see a lot of movies, but I’ve never ‘gotten’ Julia Roberts.
Acts like she’s reading cue cards, I also get the feeling she’d be a fright without all the war paint.
I needed a shower after watching that movie.
Perhaps not the worst. movie. ever.
But still pretty. damn. awful.
This only applies to the so-called ‘A’ star list. The movie industry itself is not having a recession like other industries. Movies like ‘Transformer’, ‘Up’, ‘Hangover’, ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Star Trek’ have done quite well. All were released in Summer, and so far each got more than $250m.
I don't go to movies any more but I have a number of nieces and nephews who do. They post a review(mostly on facebook, some twitter) as soon as they get home and the rest of them use that as a guide. They ALL saw Star Trek after one posted a glowing review.
Basically Hollywood can't get away with a strong weekend for a huge stink bomb. It stand or falls on its own merit and they're surprised that a Will Ferrel movie bombs? He's funny occasionally but he does movies every week.
Ridiculous ticket prices + lousy movies = you lose
Maybe if the “big stars” would keep their political ignorance to themselves instead of thinking that their opinions matter more than the rest of ours, they wouldn’be be having this problem.
I guess you and I just don’t get it! We’re supposed to be content with our status as the ‘little people’. You know, the unsophisticated, culturally ignorant trailer trash who bow to those above us.
I liked ‘Julie & Julia’ too. I thought Meryl Streep captured the essence of Julia Child.
True, that.
And, the fact that the citizens are now getting it is terrific.
I think she is a fright WITH make-up. I have never seen her as a pretty woman.
I was really hoping to read that that giant America hater George Looney had failed.
When was the last good movie he made or the last positive thing he ever said about this country? Some people might think Oceans 11. I stopped watching him after ‘O Brother Where Art Thou. And I can’t even remember if that movie was made before or after Oceans 11.
The funniest line was, "If I were a Republican, I would have fired you." But, unfortunately, the filmmakers didn't realize that it was.
Maybe if they didn't take a beloved, albeit cheesy, KIDS program that many of us feel nostalgic about and turn it into a soft porn flick, we might actually go see it. Idiots.
They’ve destroyed the illusion. I can’t watch any of those stars without constantly replaying their political comments telling ME that my beliefs are stupid and archaic.
And they are certainly free and welcome to share their points of view. They just need to know that it turns people off. I’ve noticed that very few of the younger stars are quite as outspoken. They’re still amassing their fortune and are a little more careful about alienating their audience.
Don’t know if I’ve reached grumpy old man status but the plot and pacing of most modern films have been made subordinate to ‘vehicles’ for various stars...the result is usually an ego-trip devoid of entertainment.
Even when Redford, Newman, Hoffman, Hackman et al were in their prime each film promised a new fully-formed character, a supporting cast that supported the story, not the star and a directorial ‘feel’ that was maintained throughout the film.
Even today’s so-called blockbusters have a cynical sling-it-against-the-wall feel. A good earner will generate a sequel no matter how much the parties involved protest. A bad earner will simply be forgotten by all. So much for art.
Economics is, of course, why the A-list system works (or perhaps no longer does, according to the article).
Film making is a high-risk, high-reward business. If a film works, it will make gazillions, but no more than one, maybe two, out of ten will be “box-office smashes”. Another two to three of the ten will do “ok”, get their seed money back, perhaps a little more. The rest bomb. With production costs running into the hundreds of millions these days, its no wonder companies will do anything to try and ensure success. This is one reason why there are so many sequels about. The idea is that if a formula is a winner, then theres a better chance that it will win again. Its also why “stars” are paid such fantastic sums. If they can guarantee that a film “opens”, then that is worth ten million dollars to the production companies. Finally, it helps to explain why films are so tawdry these days. To increase their “sellability”, they are made to appeal to as many people as possible, which usually means they resort to the lowest possible common denominator (sex and violence). The net result is we end up with films that most people will “put up with”, rather than some people will actually enjoy.
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