Starless
The latest A-List Director vs Comic Book Movies leads to a more interesting question, "what happened to movie stars?"
There must be a section of Twitter that is constantly vigilant, looking for any quote from Scorsese, Tarantino, or Spielberg about comic book movies. It happens once or twice a year and kicks off a “discourse.” Seriously, if you see something that one of these directors said about a Marvel movie on Twitter then it’s time to check your smoke detector.
That being said, the latest “incident” brings up an interesting question…what happened to movie stars?
Here is what Tarantino said on the podcast, 2 Bears, 1 Cave, “Part of the Marvel-ization of Hollywood is…you have all these actors who have become famous playing these characters. But they’re not movie stars. Right? Captain America is the star. Or Thor is the star. I mean, I’m not the first person to say that. I think that’s been said a zillion times…but it’s like, you know, it’s these franchise characters that become a star. I’m not even putting them down frankly, to tell you the truth, but that is one of the — the legacy of the Marvel-ization of Hollywood movies.”
Now, listen Tarantino is right in that he isn’t the first to say this, even Captain America himself, Anthony Mackie said something similar here:
So, this is all nothing new and not very interesting. What is interesting to me is why these actors from the Marvel Cinematic Universe aren’t able to be “movie stars” in the classic sense.
It used to be that an actor could give one “star-making” performance in a film and carry all of that to their next film, and then their next film, and before you knew it they would be making $20 million a picture.
Clint Eastwood was Dirty Harry.
Sylvester Stallone was Rambo and Rocky.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was The Terminator and Conan.
Bruce Willis was John McClane.
Harrison Ford was Han Solo, Indiana Jones, and Jack Ryan.
These actors played characters in big films but then were able to carry what they gained from those films and characters to other films that had box office success.
When I was 8 years-old Pretty Woman was released and suddenly Julia Roberts was everywhere. My mom used to watch Entertainment Tonight and when Roberts’ next film, Sleeping With The Enemy was being released I was under the impression that it was one of the biggest movies of all time because of all the attention newly-christened Julia Roberts was in it. The film was dumped on by critics but still made $178 million on a $19 million budget. That’s the power of a movie star.
Or, when I was a bit older, in 1994 the guy from In Living Color was in a movie called Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, which made $107 million on a $15 million budget. That actor from a sketch tv show not called Saturday Night Live, was named Jim Carrey. The success of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective led to his next film The Mask grossing $351 million on a $23 million budget. Carrey’s third film of 1994, Dumb and Dumber, grossing $247 million on a $17 million budget.
By 1996 Jim Carrey was being paid $20 million for his performance in The Cable Guy. Even then, his “star power” was still about to help that movie get to $102 million.
NOTE: These are worldwide grosses.
So, what happened? Why can’t anybody that appeared in Avengers: Endgame get any of their other movies to be anywhere near as successful?
I don’t know for sure but I have one theory and it’s not Marvel. My theory is that the pictures didn’t get small, but the screens did.
Time was that the only place to see these movie stars was a) either on the big screen at the cinema or b) on your TV screen while they were promoting those films. Then came social media and suddenly these actors were too accessible. We can call them up anytime on Instagram, YouTube, or wherever. This removes the mystique the movie stars had and drained their screen presence. I mean, when some kid from TikTok has as much cultural significance as Chris Hemsworth, well, it can only mean Chris Hemsworth is less special.
Tom Cruise’s biggest problem through the course of his career is when people got a peak behind the curtain of his personality. The sight of him jumping on a couch during the summer of 2005 almost derailed his career. We, as a culture, like the movie star Tom Cruise, not the other one. When he stepped back into one of his signature roles in Top Gun: Maverick people were reminded of why they liked him. He has undeniable screen presence and all we need to know about his personal life is that he does crazy stunts to entertain audiences.
Maybe that’s a larger lesson for us all, stay off social media and keep some mystery about yourself and others.