The stars are not twinkling brightly this summer.
Hollywood's movie studios, hopeful that marquee-name actors would push their summer box-office receipts to record levels, are finding the heavyweights are not winning over audiences the way they used to.
With all but a couple of big-budget films already opened, the northern summer of 2009 is shaping up to be one of the worst on record for Hollywood's A-list talent.
The studios stocked this summer's release schedule with "star vehicles," including Land of the Lost, with Will Ferrell; Year One, featuring Jack Black; Imagine That, with Eddie Murphy; and Denzel Washington and John Travolta in a remake of The Taking of Pelham 123. But rather than igniting ticket sales, the star-studded movies have under-performed dramatically.
The brightest stars of the lucrative popcorn season - which typically accounts for about 40% of annual ticket sales - instead have turned out to be mostly movies with no-name actors - or no actors at all.
So far, the summer's most profitable film has been Warner Bros' surprise hit The Hangover, a $US35 million ($NZ54 million) budget R-rated comedy about a bachelor party in Las Vegas that boasts not a single household-name actor but has reached $US183 million in US ticket sales since its June 5 opening and is expected to exceed $200 million.
Other summer hits such as J. J. Abrams' Star Trek and Michael Bay's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen showcase eye-popping visual effects along with up-and-coming talent.
And, the highest-grossing summer movie so far? Walt Disney Co's Up, the Pixar-animated movie starring the voice of ... Ed Asner.
The studios, which for years have banked on richly-paid stars to open movies, are witnessing a new reality: even the most reliable actors can be trumped by what Hollywood executives like to call "high concepts" (a bachelor party gone awry), movies based on brand-name products (Hasbro's Transformers toys) and reinvented franchises (not your father's Star Trek).
"I think we're seeing a transformation in what the value of the star system represents," said Marc Shmuger, chairman of Universal Pictures, which will take a significant loss on Ferrell's Land Of The Lost, a film that cost $100 million to make and tens of millions more to market and distribute.
There was also, he said, an "incredible hunger among audiences for something new and different".
Indeed, that was the appeal of the buddy comedy The Hangover.
"Movie stars still hold an incredible value, both creatively and financially," Hangover director Todd Phillips said. "But it's getting to be more about the movie and whether it delivers on the promise of its trailers and commercials."
Moreover, with the Internet, word of mouth about movies spreads instantly.
