Entertainment Editorial: Do Stars Still Matter?

When I say stars, I mean big name actors. And when I say big name actors, I don’t mean Kim Kardashian. Now this item isn’t meant to ask if actors are still necessary–I still remember all those articles saying actors were now irrelevant in the wake of completely CGI animated movies like Final Fantasy…which promptly bombed–because they are and I think they probably always will be. I’m just asking if people buying movie tickets really care who the actors they’re watching are anymore.

This weekend, the “sure fire” blockbuster of Cowboys and Aliens opened. It had a unique premise, a blockbuster director that made Elf and Iron Man, Steven Speilberg as executive producer, and bonafide movie stars Daniel Craig and legendary Harrison Ford. But it was beaten at the box office by a shitty bunch of annoying blue elfs and Neil Patrick Harris, who will seemingly be in anything from The Smurfs to So You Think You Can Dance to Top Chef as long as he gets paid. What’s worse, the audience for Cowboys and Aliens was much, much older and it got a B grade from moviegoers while the Smurfs received…I can’t believe I’m writing this, an A grade.

Then there’s the other movie that opened this weekend, Crazy/Sexy/Love, which had stars Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Kevin Bacon, Julianne Moore, and Marisa Tomei…it didn’t even get 20 million despite that cast and great reviews. So are we left to assume that moviegoers just don’t give two turds about quality? Absolutely, but I also wonder if they just don’t care at all about who’s in a movie. After all, during July 4th weekend we had the relatively smaller star of Shia Lebouf absolutely monkey stomp Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts at the weekend box office. Now of course some 200 foot tall robots were what people were paying to see instead of Shia, but that doesn’t explain why the same moviegoers just didn’t show up at all to see similar 200 foot tall alien robots beat up on Harrison Ford this past weekend.

It also wouldn’t explain why movies by “stars” like Julia Roberts, George Clooney, and Brad Pitt routinely can’t beat out the likes of zero-star experiences like Paranormal Activity. You might say the quality of the movies has something to do with it, but we can safely discount that theory when The Smurfs get an A grade. People always say “Hollywood underestimates the intelligence of the world” but I think it appropriately undervalues it. People will point to ONE box office hit that’s smart–like Inception–or ONE box office bomb that’s dumb–there hasn’t been a stupid movie to tank this summer, only the adult comedy/dramas–and say “See, people have taste” but that’s a fluke and most people know it. For every Inception that takes you to a new, complex place, there are ten Hangover II’s that show you the same old shit.

And so that brings me to my theory: It isn’t the quality of a movie, the intelligence of it, or even the actors in it. What sells a movie is its gimmick. It doesn’t matter if a movie is good or complicated, in fact, it actually hurts it that it’s complicated. People went to see Inception not for the excellent direction of Christopher Nolan, or because it had DiCaprio–who’s seen some smart bombs to go along with his smart hits–but because it had a single sentence gimmick (“A dream thief must plant an idea”) that could be easily sold to people. The same as The Smurfs are just “The Smurfs come to Manhattan” and Paranormal Activity is just “A haunted house movie for the YouTube age.”

You just have to come up with a high concept that low people can wrap their heads around. And then, even if the movie is too complicated for them like Inception, they’ll still go see it and just grumble about how “overrated” it was afterwards instead of admitting they just didn’t understand it. Most people gravitate towards something they’ve seen before, whether they admit it or not, and that’s why The Smurfs will always beat Cowboys and Aliens. Captain America brings them out of the woodwork where Crazy/Sexy/Love might not.

So…does not caring about actors mean good things in the future? Probably not. If you really look at some of the best mainstream movies getting made today, they almost always HAVE to star a “star” in order to get them made. Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Matt Damon have made a career out of starring in pretty good to excellent movies…and I don’t think I’ll be saying the same about Neil Patrick Harris anytime soon.