It's the same transition that child actors like Judy Garland and Shirley Temple had to make as they approached adulthood. I still can't get used to the Olsens in makeup.
My daughter has a huge inventory of MK&A videos and books. She grew up with them. I didn't much appreciate the shift in their movies when they became teens, however, and they lost me. Imagine them becoming owners of their dynasty at age 18?
It's the same transition that child actors like Judy Garland and Shirley Temple had to make as they approached adulthood. I still can't get used to the Olsens in makeup.
(1) Their "dynasty" is about over now. New York Minute which was supposed to be their big, breakout movie was a complete and utter flop - it cost 30M to make and probably another 10M to promote and made only 14M at the box office.
They are no longer a hot property in the tween market (they've been replaced with younger, trendier stars), their well-publicized drug and eating disorder problems have ruined their wholesome image, and adult moviegoers see them as a bad joke.
(2) Their business empire consisted mostly of sales of their videos and themed clothing, toys and accessories.
The margins on all that stuff is razor-thin - so when reports say that they had a "billion dollar business", a margin of 5% on that business is about $50M in profit.
Their parents took a pretty hefty management fee out of that throughout that time and continue to take consulting fees, so I'll guess that they have about $25M between them - or slightly more than Brad Pitt's pay for a single film.
(3) Their clothing line, back catalogue of videos and other tchotchkes are no longer big selling items and will continue to decline in profitability. At age 18 they've taken possession of a house of cards.
It's all downhill from here.