“The movie star concept is almost dead”. That is the view of the majority of film production directors in Hollywood about the current actor market. At this point, the people who are qualified to become box office guarantees can only be counted on the fingers. Most of them are names in the late afternoon but are still sought after by a series of studios thanks to their place in the hearts of the audience.
After about a brilliant year with a series of billion-dollar movies like Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar 2 nice The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Hollywood once again entered the summer blockbuster season with full of promising works. However, in an era where producers are too safe, focusing only on making movie franchises and remake projects, the American film industry is showing an old face.
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The game of “old people”
Two outstanding blockbusters of this summer movie season are Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Fate and Mission Impossible 7. Both works are starring veteran action stars Harrison Ford (81 years old) and Tom Cruise (61 years old). Recently, Brad Pitt (59 years old) is also coming back with a project on Formula 1 racing. These are all people who are classified as “living legends” of the world cinema village, with a series of works. popular product for many decades and still retains a certain attraction until today.
In a place considered the capital of luxury and beauty, names like Harrison Ford or Tom Cruise still retain their status as impressive. However, this status quo is also a “time bomb” threatening the US film industry, according to the Guardian.
Film studios will always look for faces to help them secure revenue. At the recent Cannes Film Festival 2023 in France – where many producers meet to introduce new projects, according to Variety, the works won by major studios are: Cliffhanger starring 76-year-old star Sylvester Stallone Breakout by Arnold Schwarzenegger (75 years old).
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Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.
A series of “money-making” names in Hollywood are now in their late afternoons. Some people are still in stable form. Tom Cruise is the highest-earning actor in 2022 with revenue of more than $100 million thanks to the blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick. Recently, he said that he wanted to follow Harrison Ford’s footsteps and do his own action scenes when he was in his 80s.
Of course, it was a half-joking statement from the actor who was dubbed the “ageless man” of Hollywood. Filming action movies is not an easy job. More and more technologies such as cinematography and artificial intelligence promise to help actors prolong their career. However, watching a male god at an old age rarely run, jump and fight often only brings feelings of nostalgia more than excitement and thrill.
The most recent example is Harrison Ford with Indiana Jones and the recent Wheel of Destiny. The actor is still extremely charming as a professor of antiquities. However, the action scenes requested by him to be played in the film, although impressive, still could not hide the traces of time.
In 2019, Robert De Niro also controversially used AI technology to make his face younger and played the killer in the movie The Irishman. Although the face of the actor over 70 years old has all wrinkles removed, his posture in the fight scenes is difficult to make people think that this is a person of a healthy age.
“For nearly a decade, Hollywood has not produced any more box office phenomenon”
It’s natural for movie stars to age. However, Hollywood’s biggest problem is that if it loses them, the movie capital is seriously lacking in a successor generation to replace its predecessors. While the “old” people are still busy with a series of popular projects, the younger faces seem to be still confused in developing their careers.
According to Variety, an unnamed Hollywood producer lamented: “For the past 10 years, we’ve been awfully bad at building a new generation of box office guarantees.” Fewer and fewer names resonate and hold a lasting position in the film market. Critic Tom Brook commented that Hollywood’s box office star crisis has been around since the early 2010s. Typically, the star generation. Twilight once caused a global fever. However, when leaving the brand, the main cast, which was highly appreciated for both their strength and appearance at that time, has not yet met the expectations of experts.
At one time, many people thought Channing Tatum could be the savior of Hollywood, but then he failed with a series of failed projects. Up to now, he is only classified as a male god with good-looking appearance, associated with muscular shoulders.
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The two main actors of the Twilight series were once expected to become box office guarantees of the new generation.
Highlighting recent promising names like Margot Robbie, Timothée Chalamet or Michael B Jordan, Variety’s source said that most of the most powerful figures in Hollywood are not too confident that they are real movie stars. . However, those are still the faces that give some peace of mind to the producers who come when they cannot invite the familiar “old people” to act in their films.
In Hollywood, from time immemorial, the thing to judge a real movie star is nothing but movie revenue. However, that is no longer entirely true lately. Hamilton – a film producer in the US – said that today’s actors sometimes become familiar faces thanks to a work that tops the number of views at the top of online entertainment platforms such as Netflix, HBO Max. However, most streaming platforms require users to pay a fee to use. This leads to a large segment of unregistered society that will not be interested in those names. The limited marketing of online movies has somewhat affected the creation of new stars.
Another reason that is said to be the main reason why it is increasingly difficult for young actors to shine is that major Hollywood producers are too focused on the action genre and markets outside of North America. These are all expensive blockbusters and need reputable names to ensure attraction. Therefore, new names do not have many opportunities to try their hand at these projects. Meanwhile, back in the day, when romantic comedies were still popular, young male gods had many advantages to shine.
Hollywood needs more than just a few young, charismatic main actors to compete with rising cinemas like Korea and China. Currently, American filmmakers are feeling pressure to choose a star who can guarantee both the professional and commercial aspects of their works. One thing is certain that without creating a new generation of attractive stars, Hollywood will lose its central position as the world’s cinema capital as it is now.