A-List Stars Fail To Fill Theaters: Will Brad Pitt Do Better?

nytimes.com:

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.

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[Aesthete]

Brad Pitt works best as an ensemble actor, in concert with other players rather than carrying an entire film as the primary star. He alone is not particularly exciting.

[Garybot]

The Hollywood group may not influence many voters; but they sure make the right mad.

We are now letting them know that we are no longer interested in their movies, because we are royally sick of them.

And it doesn't help that they've barely made anything watchable in a decade.

[boycottrightwingthings]

My favorite American movies: The Legends of the Fall, Forrest Gump, The Color Purple, Dirty Dancing, Ghost, Jurrasic park, The Godfather 1 and 2. Something about Mary (that was funny!!) and a few others that I can't think of off of the top of my head. These movies mentioned I can watch over and over again because they stimulate some kind of feeling- humor, American life, imagination, SOMETHING. I look for : refreshing, original, exiting, good storytelling, silliness that can be RELATED to, etc. I don't go to see non funny goofball crap with people who play the same role over and over again (like, for example, Jennifer Anniston's movies) Hell, I can write better crap then what they put out!!

[Bulbul]

Take Denzel out of the equation, none of the rest are are very good actors to begin with, and all of them are beyond their prime. Streep is past middle age and is going stronger because the lady can act ! The rest of the great actors are charactor actors... PS Hoffman, Judy Dench, Paul Giamatti, and willian Hurt ( doesn`t get any roles anymore).....and so on...

[boycottrightwingthings]

In the last 20 years, with very few brilliant exceptions, American films suck!! International films are where the true movie making genius seems to be!!

[boycottrightwingthings]

I think that it has a LOT to do with actresses who can't match up to actresses int he good old days! Let me give you examples: Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, Jennifer Aniston, and that ilk, all can't act! The stories are often unimaginitive remakes, there is nothing new or exiting or worthwhile, and the price to see a movie that is probably going to royally SUCK just isn't worth the chance! It is like going to Las Vegas, or Atlantic City, and most of the time, YOU LOSE!!

[TivoliEclipse]

Attribute the failure to fill theaters to unimaginative scripts! In any economy, Pulp Fiction; The Matrix; Fatal Attraction; American Beauty; Gladiator; The Color Purple; Pretty Woman; Indecent Proposal; Training Day; The Godfather(s), Goodfellas; Fargo... Hollywood needs to get it's head out of its posterior and let some new writers with fresh imaginations in!

Then you have these self-indulgent Directors/Producers like Tyler Perry and Spike Lee who will not give a brother or sister white or black a break... they insist on giving theater-goers the same stale fantasies over and over again.

Finally... these so-called A-list Actors take far too much for granted... Mr. Washington and Mr. Crowe are both chubby -- that's not cute. Go to the gym boys! The middle-aged spread for men, is a myth.

[TivoliEclipse]

In any economy those films would put a**es in the seats!

[BustMyChops]

You do know you're not arguing against what I said right? I never saw the movie. I'm just saying it made a lot of dough.

[the964kid]

Thats because Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts, Eddie Murphy, John Travolta, Russell Crowe, Tom Hanks, Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell were all in crap movies this summer.

I saw Brad in his new flick last night and it rocked. The theatre I went to had Inglorious Bastards on two screens, and many of the evening shows were sold out. So I think the answer to this question will be YES.

[jjgg5]

Anymore, it's the screenplay, not the movie star, that draws filmgoers.

[RandyJones]

It's all abt the easy money.

If they could not act, you would be seeing them behind the counter of Macy's.

[timetraveller3]

Looking on imdb, I've confirmed a suspicion that's been simmering in me for a while now . . . it's obvious, but I hadn't really thought about it before: Brad Pitt just isn't a very good actor. I've been laboring under the delusion that he was. He had fantastic timing about a decade ago, giving two memorable performances back-to-back, in two of my all-time favorite movies ("Fight Club" and "Snatch"), and that, to me, cemented his "great actor" status, which he's been cashing in on for the past decade.

I call it "The Kevin Spacey Effect".

But since then, Pitt's performances have been extremely one-note and forgettable. Even the quality movies that he's involved in aren't good because of him (I felt like he was the worst thing in "Burn After Reading").

Maybe that poster who said that there may be something to the idea of staying hungry being linked to quality was right, because, looking back now, not only has Brad Pitt not done anything close to the quality of his performances in "Fight Club" and "Snatch", the directors of those movies, who were still hungry at that time, I would think, only having one hit each under their belts, haven't come close to the quality of those movies, either.

Well, I must admit, I really did enjoy "Panic Room", and felt it was a bit underrated, actually, but it was obviously a much smaller movie than "Fight Club".

[kalapa]

Basterd will be lucky to make $15 million, if that. It's been universally panned by critics. And my take on the trailer is: uber crap.

[SeanOcali]

What movie are you talking about? Bastards? Reviews have been very good. 69 on Metacritic and 70-something on RT. The teaser was bad, but the regular full trailer was good.

[lifescientist]

Hmmm...I checked the reviews, too. The majority of critics are actually praising the movie. Inglourious Basterds seems to be rating quite well. Just wondering, where did you get the info that the movie was universally panned?

[doctorwang]

FROM AP: Pitt, Tarantino's 'Basterds' earns glorious $37.6M 2 hours, 18 minutes ago

[daisydukes]

By time that these actors get a "low wage". After all they should be able to get along with 10 million instead of 20 LOL! Also, one gets tired of their aging faces and it is good to give the up and coming actors some room to grow.

[duxguts]

When people are losing their jobs and getting thrown out of their homes, maybe they don't want to go and see other people in movies who received 20 or 30 million bucks for acting in it.

[SeanOcali]

I understand why that makes sense to you, but it's wrong. When pro football starts up soon you'll understand why that theory is wrong.

Movies are recession proof. The problem is that unappealing movies are almost always going to fail no matter what the economy is.