Posted on 03/12/2018 7:49:42 AM PDT by EdnaMode
The A-list actress' recent stumbles with 'Red Sparrow,' 'mother!' and 'Passengers' are no reason to gloat. The death of the movie star is bad news for everyone in Hollywood.
In 1993, John Travolta’s career was teetering on the brink. The actor, who’d become a superstar with Saturday Night Fever and then added to his luster with Grease, had all but ceased to matter as a cultural force. True, he could still deliver the occasional hit, such as Look Who’s Talking, but at the domestic and foreign box office he was a has-been, someone largely remembered for a white sharkskin suit and a few fabulous dance moves.
Hollywood had effectively written him off, perhaps unconvinced he was all that big a star to begin with. But one director, who was just beginning to make his name, had faith, and when he came to make his second feature, he chose Travolta for the most important role. That director, of course, was Quentin Tarantino; the feature was 1994’s Pulp Fiction; and with it, Travolta was back on top, raking in $20 million per movie and sealing his place in the pantheon.
It isn’t easy being a star, as Jennifer Lawrence must have thought when Red Sparrow opened to a humble $16.9 million first weekend earlier this month. You’re on a perpetual roller-coaster ride, knowing each time you’re up, the law of gravity says you’re going to crash back down. Stars live in constant fear that everything they have, they’ll soon lose — the perks, the privileges, the private planes. Directors secretly resent their clout, executives question their monetary value and pundits (like me) wonder whether many deserve to be called stars at all.
(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...
They show up for the story. Murphy was the face. Michael Caine would have done fine in BHC if they’d advertised it right. Hollywood pays for these surveys over and over and over and never freaking listens to the results. Genre and story, those ALWAYS top the list. Actors near the middle, directors on the bottom, and nobody cares about writers and producers. And yet what does Hollywood always advertise: stars, directors, producers and writers. Half the freaking commercials you don’t even know what the damn story is, they Hollywood acts all surprised when it flops.
The facts are in: people want to know what the damn movie is about, and they don’t really care who’s in it. You’re addicted to the star idea in the same way Hollywood is, and just like them you’re wrong. If people watched the movies for the stars then the stars wouldn’t have flops. You want to know which movie people watched 100% because Eddie Murphy was in it? Raw. His standup movie. $50 million grosses. That’s how much Eddie was actually worth in his peak draw.
The movies Eddie Murphy had success with, had good ensemble casts, but he couldn’t carry a movie all by himself.
The story of BHC didn’t really work. The script was notoriously bad. On the DVD audio commentary, Martin Brest said that he would cringe during scenes where characters have to recite plot points to each other. That’s not what the film was “about”. It was about the interactions between the characters. And that came from Murphy and Judge Reinhold improvising most of their lines. Comic bits that had nothing to do with the ostensible “story”, that’s what people liked about the film and that’s what kept word of mouth going on it.
What was advertised was a story, a buddy cop story with some fish out of water elements and raucous comedy. That’s what people went to see. And the story works fine, it delivers all the opportunities necessary for the comedy.
Eddie by himself is $50 million. BHC was $234. The facts are in, the draw to BHC was NOT Eddie. Period. Lie to yourself if you must, but don’t bullshit me. Stars haven’t been the primary draw since the 60s. Catch up.
Eddie’s draw, just on its own, was still bigger than just about anyone else could have delivered at the time.
Eddie’s draw, just on its own, was minuscule and not enough to make a hit movie. That’s the point. And the star system is even deader now, with 400 movies a year coming out wide and most of the “big stars” in a movie every 3 or 4 months audiences that want to see that person can wait until the next one and hope it’s more interesting. None of these Lawrence flops would have done any better with anybody else, they just weren’t appealing movies (or even good) and weren’t well advertised. And so they bombed.
IIRC that Boobs segment was all staged and filmed beforehand, but it was still hilarious.
I am in the minority that thinks that Seth McFarlane was one of the best hosts the Oscars ever had.
Oh I have no doubt that stars are no longer a draw. But in ‘80s they still were to some degree.
It was too well done not to be staged. Got me.
Minor at best. By that point the star system was already 2 decades dead.
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