Brad Pitt seduced Match-Flickers as well as THELMA & LOUISE |
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Exhibitors are always trying to enlarge what they half-jokingly call "The Incredible Shrinking Movie Audience."
Previously, this pillar has chronicled how exhibitors have tried to counter issues that turn-off Match-Flickers: high ticket and concession prices, rude patrons, limited parking, and excessive on-screen advertising.
Yet there are other reasons why the audience has become box office shy. Here's one of them: the trouble is in our stars.
Stars are perfectly human beings that we anoint as demigods. We pay them untold fortunes. We pluck them from obscurity and transform them into objects of desire and worship: Harrison Ford worked as an unheralded carpenter before we sent him into Hollywood's orbit. Tom Cruise planned a career as a Catholic priest, oh, the fun I could have with that one (but I digress).
Star status brings more than fame, fortune, and all of the sex you can eat. It brings responsibility, too. A star is responsible to the Match-Flickers who placed him/her in the Hollywood firmament. We have expectations. If we deified you because you whitened our smiles (comedy), or evoked our tears (drama), or sang and danced your way into our hearts, then you'd best continue to be the product that we 
Julia Roberts in highest orbit as ERIN BROCKOVICH |
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purchased.
But stars can lose their luster. Cases in point:
When was the last time that Jim Carrey made a movie that everyone wanted to see? It was THE GRINCH WHO STOLE CHRISTMAS (2000), seven years ago. In box office years, that's an eternity. Jim, excepting BRUCE ALMIGHTY, you've pretty much blown your fan base out the top of your eccentricities. What's more, you've been garnering a reputation as being highly difficult. Think Val Kilmer. Straighten up and fly right, or you could be returning to your pre-stardom White Trash lifestyle in Canada.
Julia Roberts, we still love you, gorgeous. But the next time that you accept a title role, it had better be akin to ERIN BROCKOVICH (2000), or PRETTY WOMAN (1990). We AREN'T SPENDING $10 to hear you voice an animated spider (CHARLOTTE'S WEB 2006). I mean, talk about making a sow's ear from a silk purse. We support your devotion to marriage and motherhood, but when the box office is your priority, it's time to show us why we made Eric's kid sister the highest-paid actress in motion pictures. Spin movie magic, not webs.
Brad Pitt, I'm not sure that your fan base cares about BABEL, or even in another OCEAN's sequel. Try playing to your strengths as you did in MR. & 
Jim Carrey thrilled us as THE GRINCH |
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MRS. SMITH – and way back when in THELMA & LOUISE. You've proven that you're more than just a pretty face and physique. It's time to use that pretty face and physique to reclaim box office dominance.
There was a time – a long time ago – when Hollywood's studios, and not the performers, controlled the destinies of the stars. At that time, they were under exclusive contracts, usually seven years in length, to one of the Hollywood major studios. The stars received generous weekly salaries, but not the fortunes they command today. In exchange for their long-term employment, the stars made picture after picture that the studios assigned to them.
Most commonly, the studio cast the star in a role that the public wanted to see them perform. If the star refused, the studio simply suspended him/her, and s/he didn't work or get paid until meeting the studio's demand, or until the star's contract time ran out. By the mid 1960s, this studio-star system had largely ended, and those in the heavens were left to their own devices.
There are many ways in which exhibitors, audiences, and studios can make the box office more of the "magical escape" that Match-Flickers desire. For their part, the stars can bolster the "wattage" of their twink
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| The Business of Show |
Every other Friday
Does advertising, public taste, or overindulged stars determine a movie's box office fate? Christoper Stone explores what's going on behind the box office.
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| Christopher Stone |
Christopher Stone is the author of the international best seller Re-Creating Your Self. With Mary Sheldon, he co-authored three highly successful hardcover books of guided meditations.
He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West.
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