'Movie stars'

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Hello, this is an experiment (in part) to see if there is anybody alive out there...?

Is today's celebrity culture responsible for keeping the careers of Anjelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Ryan Reynolds and more alive? I think so. These people have mixed to little success at the box-office yet are considered big name "stars".

Has Ryan Reynolds ever actually made a decent movie?

I rest my case. Thank you and goodnight.

[benantifan2]

I think that many of the people that you name are indeed celebrities, not movie stars. They can sell magazine covers better than they can act or sell movies!

[mikasanders]

I always look at
http://boxofficemojo.com/people/?view=Actor&sort=sumgross&p=.htm

and I'm not even sure that those people are stars, because those at the top are there mostly due to franchises that sold based on the property name, not based on THEIR star value.

For example, I'd consider Morgan Freeman a great actor, but crediting him with THE DARK KNIGHT - not so much.

[dramamama611]

A movie star and a great actor are NOT synonymous -- at all. Those people are personalities because of their exposure both on film and their personal lives.

[henrikegerman]

I think you are perhaps confusing the fact that many of today's celebrity actors have not made the impression in films that you associate with movie stars because they rarely get opportunities to do so with the idea that they don't have what it takes to be a movie star.

There have always been great film actors who were not movie stars, movie stars who were not great - or even good - film actors, movie stars who were great actors bur rarely if ever got an opportunity to reveal that, and great actors who revealed their stuff but the industry didn't foster their film stardom.

Success at the box office does not equate with being a true movie star, or not, or being a great actor, or not.

Kidman, Jolie and Reynolds are all quite talented. For instance, Kidman showed true star quality of a classic type in The Others.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

I appreciate those good points.

I just wonder why Hollywood producers pay these people giant salaries when there is little evidence that they get any return for it. Bah, I hate "celebrity".

[paul_santos]

I think many times they think they're going to make their money back internationally when many of these stars do still sell movies (see: Sylvestor Stallone).

[mikasanders]

Who do YOU consider stars Jay?

[tazber]

Jolie's movies make money. Well, when her action movies do.

[mikasanders]

So we're going purely on box office? In that case, we're talking Tom Cruise territory, etc. right?

[Jay Lerner-Z]

mika, I guess I would consider the likes of Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio to be true movie stars - talent, charisma, box-office success, and succesful and beloved because of their skills, not their soap-opera lifestyles.

[mikasanders]

I'd agree with Hanks, Roberts, Streep & DiCaprio. When's the last time Bullock had a hit?

[Jay Lerner-Z]

The BlindSide grossed over $300 million in 2010, and she also won a Best Actress Oscar - I would consider that a recent success. She has released just one movie since then.

[benantifan2]

Where does Mel Gibson fall these days? Still toxic?

[lyman018]

Still toxic. Threw out my Braveheart and Lethal Weapon DVDs because I can't watch him anymore.

[nicknite]

No, he hasn't gone the typical Hollywood route of rehab and crying to Barbara Walters or anything yet so he's officially still a bigot with anger issues.

[mikasanders]

I don't think that we'll ever see Gibson rehab his image, he's f*ed up too many times.

[lyman018]

He's never even actually really apologized, has he?