The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies
The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies |
| Posted: 01 Jun 2013 04:35 PM PDT Is there an expiration date for actors in Hollywood? Major studios don't seem to think so. CONSIDERING Hollywood is such an "ageist" town and the nature of showbusiness seems to favour young(er) stars, it is a surprise that major studios still prefer "veteran" actors to headline their projects. Sure, people like Channing Tatum, Zac Efron, Josh Hutcherson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are the toast of Tinseltown and flavours of the month. But as much as they are good to look at, they are not as bankable as, say, Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise, Bruce Willis or even Liam Neeson. After all, for Hollywood studios, it is the dollars and cents that matter: "Can your movie hit the No.1 spot on opening weekend?" So, when it comes to box-office muscle, looks like the older actors have the power. But don't just take our word for it. Let's crunch some numbers: One of Hollywood's hottest heartthrobs, Efron, only managed to take in US$23mil (RM69mil) for his comedy 17 Again while the sequel to Neeson's Taken earned US$50mil (RM150mil) in the opening weekend. FYI, Neeson is 60 years old, while Efron is 25. Of course, young actors like Robert Pattinson and Daniel Radcliffe have made truckloads of money for the studios, but only with the help of popular franchises (in this case, The Twilight Saga and Harry Potter, respectively). When it comes to standalone titles, younger actors just don't have the clout. For example, Pattinson's romantic drama Water For Elephants only managed to collect US$17mil (RM51mil) in its opening weekend; his 2012 movie Cosmopolis earned a meagre US$70,339! This is hardly a figure befitting a "lead actor". In comparison, Bruce Willis' 2012 action sci-fi Looper pulled in US$20mil (RM60mil) in its opening weekend. No wonder studios have so much faith in ageing stars. Liam Neeson Gross box-office collection in the US (2008-2013): US$1.5bil (RM4.5bil) You can call Liam Neeson an accidental box-office star. In 2008, he was cast as a father out to rescue his kidnapped daughter in Taken. The movie became a surprise hit and made Neeson an unlikely action star. Costing only US$25mil (RM75mil), Taken earned US$226mil (RM678mil) in worldwide box-office earnings, making Neeson a bona fide box-office draw. He has starred in more than 15 movies after the success of Taken. Not bad for an actor who spent most of his career playing supporting roles. Goes to show one is never too old for success. Brad Pitt Gross box-office collection in the US (2008-2013): US$575mil (RM1.76bil) Unlike his peers, Brad Pitt isn't too keen on making big-budget blockbuster films. His body of work in the last five years (Inglourious Basterds, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button) included many critically acclaimed films, but few of them were major box-office hits. However, Pitt, 50, was clever enough to attach himself to projects like Happy Feet Two and Megamind (animated features in which actor involvement is shorter as compared with in live action movies) that collected top dollars at the box-office. This obviously kept the studios happy, and in return they were willing to finance Pitt's (quirky) projects. Later this month, the actor's highly anticipated big-budget zombie flick, World War Z, finally rolls into cinema after years of problems (rewrites, reshoots, etc). Will it be a hit for Pitt? Looking at the publicity and advertising efforts that have gone into promoting the film, the studio sure hopes so. Denzel Washington Gross box-office collection in the US (2008-2013): US$462mil (RM1.42bil) Two-time Oscar winning actor and director Denzel Washington's illustrious career took to the skies after he won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar award for his role as an embittered yet courageous runaway slave in the Civil War drama Glory, way back in 1989. After that, Washington has played the leading man for several decades, awing audiences both male and female in a number of powerful films like Malcolm X, Training Day and Crimson Tide. His appeal is undeniable: People magazine named Washington the "Sexiest Man Alive" twice – first in 1996 and again in 2012. More remarkably however, the 57-year-old Hollywood heavyweight was featured alongside men like Chris Hemsworth, 29, and Channing Tatum, 32, proving that flesh may age, but franchise is forever. Bruce Willis Gross box-office collection in the US (2008-2013): US$562mil (RM1.73bil) When Bruce Willis stepped into the role of Officer John McClane in the first Die Hard movie in 1988, and uttered the catchphrase, "yippee-ki-yay", everything changed for him. From a budding TV star (Moonlighting), Willis became an action star, and a darn good one at that. Sure, over the years, the 58-year-old actor has had his share of hits (Pulp Fiction, Twelve Monkeys, The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Red) and misses (The Jackal, Mercury Rising, Breakfast Of Champions and The Whole Ten Yards) – he also released an album but you should probably stay away from that – but he continues to be in demand, especially as an action star. Earlier this year the fifth instalment – A Good Day To Die Hard – was released, and movie No.6 (Die Hardest) has already been planned. What Willis has in abundance – other than on-screen charisma – is a big fanbase outside of the United States. While A Good Day To Die Hard grossed, erm, only US$67mil (RM205mil) in the US, the film made US$304mil (RM934mil) from its worldwide earnings. Tom Hanks Gross box-office collection in the US (2008-2013): US$229mil (RM702.6mil) Tom Hanks and his head of cherubic curls may not have made much of an impact in the beginning of his career when he appeared in a string of mostly unsuccessful comedies, but all that changed in 1988 with Big, a film in which he gave a delightful performance as a child stuck in a grown man's body. Since then, he's turned our hearts into mush with Sleepless In Seattle and made us weep buckets as a tormented AIDS-afflicted homosexual lawyer in Philadelphia. And who can forget his convincing portrait of the slow-witted but phenomenally lucky Forrest Gump? His hair may be greying and his jowls may be sagging at 57, but age hasn't slown Hanks down one bit or ruined his amiable, laid-back style. In fact, he recently appeared in a slew of highly-acclaimed shows like Cloud Atlas and Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close. His most impressive achievement? Not shying away from age-appropriate roles. Tom Cruise Gross box-office collection in the US (2008-2013): US$685mil (RM2.1bil) If you don't know who Tom Cruise is, you might as well be living on Pluto. The A-List actor has been wielding considerable box-office muscle since the 1980s, appearing in big-budget Hollywood flicks like Top Gun, A Few Good Men and Jerry Maguire. Maybe it's a combination of good genes and talent, but despite being more than half a century old (he's 51 this year), Cruise continues to take on – and rock! – a variety of younger roles, from sleek action hero in Oblivion to a tattooed-up heavy-metal Rock God in Rock Of Ages. And while many men his age would be happy lounging at home with a newspaper, Cruise did the opposite – he jumped off the 828m-tall Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, the franchise's fourth instalment. It worked: MI4 was an enormous hit, making US$693mil (RM2.07bil). Can a star get any brighter? With Cruise, we seem to think so. Johnny Depp Gross box-office collection in the US (2008-2013): US$956mil (RM2.94bil) Believe it or not, the young man who played an undercover cop stationed at a high school in the 1987 TV series, 21 Jump Street, turns 50 on June 9. In the years since leaving the show, Johnny Depp has built a name for himself, embodying many memorable characters on the big screen including Edward Scissorhands (Edward Scissorhands), Ed Wood (Ed Wood), Raoul Duke (Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas) and Ichabod Crane (Sleepy Hollow). With Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl (2003), he propelled himself as a bankable movie star, and he hasn't looked back since. His status as an A-list star doesn't come any clearer than with his latest film, The Lone Ranger (July 4). In it, he portrays Tonto (the sidekick character), yet he gets first billing in the film credits. Related Stories: |
| Posted: 01 Jun 2013 04:33 PM PDT Even in the Asian film scene, older stars still give their juniors a run for the money. Donnie Yen Donnie Yen has been around for ages, but his star has never been brighter than it is now, thanks to his iconic role as the legendary Wing Chun master in 2008's Ip Man. That blockbuster action movie turned Yen into one of the highest-paid actors – and the most in-demand martial arts actor – in Asia today. Yen made his acting debut in 1984's Drunken Tai Chi, but only got his big break via the Jet Li blockbuster Once Upon A Time In China II in 1992. He followed that with a starring role in Iron Monkey (1993) and then ventured into Hollywood, playing minor roles in Blade II and Shanghai Knights. He has also been making a name for himself as an action choreographer. Still, it was Ip Man that made Yen the global star he is now, as the movie became one of the biggest box-office hits in Asia, launching his career into the stratosphere in the process. Today, Yen can do no wrong. Even his attempts at non-action movies have been hits – his comedic turns in the All's Well, Ends Well movies in 2011 and 2012 were well-received and were box office hits as well. Yen, who turns 50 in July, was recently cast in the leading role for the recently announced Yuen Woo Ping-directed Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon II: The Green Destiny, a sequel to Ang Lee's Oscar-winning movie, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000). Jackie Chan Oh come on, do we really need to tell you who Jackie Chan is? The guy has been entertaining movie audiences since the late 1970s, kicking and punching his way to stardom via the classic Snake In The Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master in 1978, before setting off on a (literally) bone-breaking run of classic 1980s action movies like Project A, Police Story, Wheels On Meals and Armour Of God. The fact that Chan is still alive and continuing to make movies is practically a miracle – he is best known for doing his own stunts, the most memorable of which have seen him sliding down a long pole with Christmas lights wrapped around it in Police Story and free-falling from a high clock tower in Project A. Chan, who turns 59 this year, has made more than 100 movies to date, and continues to be box-office gold – his latest film, CZ12, was one of the highest-grossing films ever in the China box-office. Although he has announced that CZ12 would be his final action film in which he does his own stunts, the fact remains that Chan is one of the most recognisable and famous Asian stars around, and will probably continue to draw in the crowds, even without him trying to kill himself in every film. Kamal Hassan Any fan of Indian cinema is guaranteed to have more than one Kamal Hassan film in their list of favourites. Having acted since he was four years old, Kamal Hassan, 58, has made way too many projects to count (not on two hands at least). Not content with just acting, he has ventured into directing and writing screenplays, always taking his film boldly into uncharted territories in Indian cinema. Nonetheless, Kamal Hassan's adventurous attitude has landed him in hot water with the Indian government and various groups a number of times. The most recent debacle concerned the spy thriller Vishwaroopam (released earlier this year), where several Muslim groups were unhappy with the portrayal of Islam in the film, resulting in a temporary ban that was lifted 15 days later. Kamal Hassan is also known for playing different characters in a single film, donning thick make-up, prosthetics and various costumes. In the 2008 film Dasavatharam, he played a total of 14 characters including the president of the United States. It grossed US$57mil (RM175mil) in worldwide earnings. Related Stories: |
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