{"id":1797500,"date":"2023-01-06T11:20:09","date_gmt":"2023-01-06T16:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1797500"},"modified":"2023-01-06T11:20:15","modified_gmt":"2023-01-06T16:20:15","slug":"amsterdam-and-babylon-prove-it-movie-stars-cant-sell-tickets-like-they-used-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/amsterdam-and-babylon-prove-it-movie-stars-cant-sell-tickets-like-they-used-to\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Amsterdam\u2019 And \u2018Babylon\u2019 Prove It: Movie Stars Can\u2019t Sell Tickets Like They Used To"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Famsterdam-and-babylon-prove-it-movie-stars-cant-sell-tickets-like-they-used-to%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1797500&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Ask a hundred directors if they\u2019d accept a cast including Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Robert De Niro, Mike Myers, Taylor Swift, and Rami Malek.<\/p>\n<p>The answer will be the same every time. Yes, please. And they might imagine a box office smash along the way.<\/p>\n<p>Except such a film opened last year, \u201cAmsterdam,\u201d and no one went to see it. That\u2019s an exaggeration, but only a small one. The movie earned just $14.9 million at the U.S. box office, meaning it\u2019ll <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2022\/10\/amsterdam-box-office-flop-david-o-russell-movie-1235140204\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cost its studio nearly $100 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmsterdam\u201d flopped despite its starry cast, and it\u2019s far from alone. Robbie joined Brad Pitt last year for \u201cBabylon,\u201d another A-list affair directed by \u201cLa La Land\u201d auteur Damien Chazelle. It flopped, too.<\/p>\n<p>Recent Oscar-bait movies featuring Cate Blanchett (\u201cTar\u201d), Timothee Chalamet (\u201cBones and All\u201d), and \u201cThe Fabelmans\u201d (Paul Dano, Michelle Williams) all died at the box office.<\/p>\n<p>Movie stars may adorn late-night TV, magazine covers, and more. Many draw millions of followers on social media, something unavailable to actors like John Wayne, Sidney Poitier, and Katharine Hepburn.<\/p>\n<p>What they can\u2019t do in 2023 is guarantee fannies in the seats like the movie stars of yore.<\/p>\n<p>Even Dwayne Johnson\u2019s \u201cBlack Adam,\u201d a superhero adventure starring one of the few actors with a near-sterling box office resume, didn\u2019t earn enough last year to warrant a sequel.<\/p>\n<p>Modern Hollywood is all about the IP \u2013 the intellectual property. It\u2019s not Pitt, Tom Hanks, or Margot Robbie. It\u2019s \u201cTransformers,\u201d \u201cSuper Mario Bros.,\u201d or \u201cHarry Potter.\u201d Brand recognition is now the coin of the realm in Tinsel Town, and it explains why studios greenlight projects with questionable film value.<\/p>\n<p>Is anyone clamoring for this summer\u2019s \u201cBarbie\u201d movie? Did we need to see a naval adventure based on the \u201cBattleship\u201d board game in 2012? Does it matter who dons the red and blue Spider-Man suit, so long as the web crawler\u2019s heroics remains the same?<\/p>\n<p>Established brands will always draw eyeballs, but movie stars routinely did, too. What changed?<\/p>\n<p>Technology, for starters.<\/p>\n<p>The Internet lets stars connect with fans like never before. We can see stars luxuriating in their homes, follow their fashion faux pas on Instagram and watch them on YouTube. And that\u2019s when they\u2019re not appearing on talk shows, magazine covers, or other media platforms.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re everywhere, and therefore less special. It\u2019s no longer an event to see Tom Hanks at the Oscars like it was to see Jack Nicholson grinning from the front row. We\u2019ve already seen Hanks on a half-dozen talk shows and magazine covers.<\/p>\n<p>The modern actor is more eager to stretch, to grow beyond his or her screen persona. John Wayne played rugged heroes, cowboys, and other white hat types. He knew his brand and rarely strayed from it. Audiences, in turn, knew exactly what they\u2019d get when they paid for a Wayne movie ticket.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s actors routinely stretch from film to film. Jim Carrey conquered Hollywood with comedies like \u201cAce Ventura\u201d and \u201cDumb and Dumber, but he longed to tackle dramatic fare like \u201cEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Modern stars are also more open about their political views, and it\u2019s costing them at the box office.<\/p>\n<p>Old-school actors, by comparison, were tightly controlled by their respective film studios. Their images were protected by marketers who kept scandals off the front pages and ensured their images remained as spotless as possible.<\/p>\n<p>Cary Grant didn\u2019t opine about the latest headlines, even if he had firm opinions on any given subject.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s no longer the case. Most stars are intensely political, reliably progressive, and often toxic in their rhetoric. That intensifies during an election cycle, as does the heated commentary.<\/p>\n<p>The result? Roughly half the country feels insulted by Celebrity Nation, and they\u2019re far less eager to pay good money to see their latest films.<\/p>\n<p>There are exceptions to the era of the fading movie star, but the group is shockingly small. Tom Cruise\u2019s \u201cTop Gun: Maverick\u201d electrified audiences in 2022, part of the actor\u2019s consistent box office legacy. Johnson, notwithstanding the 2017 dud \u201cBaywatch,\u201d has proven a reliable draw across original and rebooted properties alike.<\/p>\n<p>Kevin Hart\u2019s comedies also draw a crowd, but he spends more time of late starring in Netflix originals like \u201cMe Time,\u201d \u201cThe Man from Toronto,\u201d and \u201cFatherhood.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Movie stardom can still move the needle in smaller ways. The video on demand market thrives when recognizable stars grace Blu-ray or streaming images. It\u2019s one reason Bruce Willis shot so many low-budget films before his declining mental health forced his retirement last year.<\/p>\n<p>Names like Willis, Nicolas Cage, and John Travolta still matter when people watch movies at home.<\/p>\n<p>That doesn\u2019t translate to the big screen.<\/p>\n<p>Line up the biggest stars in the Hollywood galaxy today. They\u2019ve all delivered box office clunkers. Hanks\u2019 lineup includes \u201cThe Circle,\u201d \u201cA Hologram for the King,\u201d \u201cNews of the World,\u201d and \u201cInferno.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>George Clooney? His 2022 \u201cTicket to Paradise\u201d revitalized the rom-com last year, but he also<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ask a hundred directors if they\u2019d accept a cast including Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Robert De Niro, Mike Myers, Taylor Swift, and Rami Malek. The answer will be the same every time. Yes, please. And they might imagine a box office smash along the way. Except such a film opened last year, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":279,"featured_media":1797503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[13686,6074,3680,6202,7454,4868,8413,9365,6316,7367,6195],"class_list":["post-1797500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire","tag-amsterdam","tag-babylon","tag-cant","tag-daily","tag-it","tag-movie","tag-prove","tag-sell","tag-stars","tag-tickets","tag-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/279"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1797500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1797503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1797500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1797500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1797500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}