D&D Movie/TV Chris Pine is making $11.5 million for D&D movie

[jmartkdr2]

Got it - you are positing that the trend that "movies might flop even with talent" is something new and changing the status quo.

Hint: It's not.

Michael Caine was in the 1987 movie Jaws: Revenge. It stank on ice. When asked about it he has a rather famous quote: " I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific."

Half of the floor of a Marvel movie - wow, your calibration is so off that you need to do Marvel level numbers to be a successful movie?

Okay, let's take a look at Chaos Walking. What was the advertising budget of Chaos Walking, because I never heard of it. It released MARCH 2021, cinema only. There's this thing called a pandemic that's been reducing cinema attendees, and a theatric-only release before common vaccination is the kiss of death. Critical respons according to wikipedia was "poor execution and conventional, underdeveloped characters." - sounds like it was released at a ti9me people weren't going to theaters, without much advertising, and wasn't well done. If that's one of your poster children to show how star power is dead - well, you cherry picked an example of everything wrong and tried to blame it on one factor.

Franchises is a separate point, and I already talked about the trend towards sequels and reboots - I should have included franchises in there. But those have existed for a long time in tandem with star power.

If you take the original claim as "casting has no impact whatsoever on ticket sales" - then yes, that's silly and incorrect. Dwayne Johnson can still sell a movie by himself, but these days that's the exception.

If you take the original claim as "start power is no longer the main thing driving ticket sales" - then conventional wisdom is that's been the case for 20 years at least, and that the main thing these days is now Franchise branding. Back in the 90's, the main way you got butts in seats was star power. Sometime around 2000, with things like LotR and Harry Potter and Spider-Man, that started shifting, with the full shift in place by 2008 with Iron Man and The Fast and the Furious. This is why Marvel movies make money - people want to go see the latest Marvel movie. They're not going to see the new Simu Liu flick.

It's a shift in priority, but no factor arose form nowhere nor disappeared entirely.

Anywho, I don't think they're paying Chris Pine millions because he'll draw in a ton of people - they're paying because they want a really good actor and the best actors cost a lot of money. The fact that a few people will be a bit more excited because his name's on the poster is a side benefit.

 

[Zardnaar]

11 million isn't even a big budget actor. A lister back in the 90's was 20 million.

I don't think Chris Pines name or the D&D label alone are enough. Better hope the movie is great. IIRC most Chris Pine movies don't do that well unless he is attached to a bigger franchise like Trek.

 

[Morrus]

Can you provide some support for this claim? Because Hollywood is rather good at making money - it's one of the reasons they favor sequels and reboot because they have an expected minimum audience - and Hollywood is still spending big money on actors.

I don't want anecdotes of movies that do well without big name actors - that's always happened when everything aligns and in no way removes the star power of name recognition and the attraction to the audience. I want to see support for "the age of superstars has ended".

I don't think it's an unreasonable claim. While stars do still have pulling power, the big pull these days is massive brands. You go to see the latest Marvel movie, or the latest Star Wars movie. If you go to see the latest Robert Downey Jr. film, you get that Doctor Doolittle film he made last year. How many people flocked to see Chris Evans in The Red Sea Diving Resort? Next year are you going to see the latest Robert Pattinson film, or are you going to see Batman?

So sure. I agree that stars aren't gone (Dwayne Johnson certainly pulls in audiences!) but they are less important than they used to be, and brands are really big now. Like an order of magnitude bigger than they were 20 years ago. Global marketing of brands is immense stuff that individuals -- however successful -- struggle to compete with. And studios invest in brands rather than actors, because they can own brands, while they can't own actors.

 

[billd91]

So sure. I agree that stars aren't gone (Dwayne Johnson certainly pulls in audiences!) but they are less important than they used to be, and brands are really big now. Like an order of magnitude bigger than they were 20 years ago. Global marketing of brands is immense stuff that individuals -- however successful -- struggle to compete with. And studios invest in brands rather than actors, because they can own brands, while they can't own actors.

in the case of Dwayne Johnson, he’s the brand. Same with Tom Cruise, Will Smith, actors that seem to be able drive the draw.

 

[Morrus]

in the case of Dwayne Johnson, he’s the brand. Same with Tom Cruise, Will Smith, actors that seem to be able drive the draw.

Exactly. But they are rarer, and of those three only Johnson is a guaranteed hit these days.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I don't know, how much of an FX budget do you need for blue lips?
View attachment 148914

I think they plan on shooting higher then just blue lips.

 

[MNblockhead]

Can you provide some support for this claim? Because Hollywood is rather good at making money - it's one of the reasons they favor sequels and reboot because they have an expected minimum audience - and Hollywood is still spending big money on actors.

I don't want anecdotes of movies that do well without big name actors - that's always happened when everything aligns and in no way removes the star power of name recognition and the attraction to the audience. I want to see support for "the age of superstars has ended".

I have absolutely no data on this, and I think top stars are still a draw, but it does feel that the current streaming service boom, with a growing number of big-budget content creators (Netflix, Amazon, Apple) is leading to many more series and movies that focus more on drawing on fandoms for different properties or genres than they are selling the actors.

 

[MNblockhead]

I think they plan on shooting higher then just blue lips.

Blue eyeliner?

 

[humble minion]

Blue eyeliner?

Whoa whoa whoa ... it's too early to be THAT ambitious.

Blue nose-hair mascara.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

That paycheck tells me at least they are throwing some decent money at it. So that's a potential plus! Just as long as the keep all the freaking political jabs out of it and 'social commentary', it might be good.

Looking forward to hearing more of where the story and characters are going.

^_^

Paul L. Ming