Is Star Power Important to Movie’s Box Office Revenue
Movie stars and famous actors have been around since the beginning of the film industry and are important in almost all types/genres of movies. Characters and actors are always changing, and new actors are emerging everyday but there is one change that people can’t seem to agree on. Though stars do play significant roles in the movies they play, people argue whether they’re important to box office revenue success.
Some believe that star power isn’t a big factor when it comes to the movie’s revenue because it’s the movie itself that draws the crowd. In the video, BBC News explains that it’s the franchises like “The Avengers” and “Mission Impossible” that bring the movie to its success. BBC News claims that the franchises even make the actors much more popular than they previously were and they give the example of Robert Downey junior. Before the Ironman films he was struggling with drug abuse and wasn’t as successful as he is now because he was given then chance to play, what is considered to some, an iconic character. They also claim that the reason stars are no longer what they used to be is because they’ve lost what makes them “special”. BBC News doesn’t really define what it is that made them special but claims that the exploitation of journalists and tremendous transparency with tabloids and the audience is the reason.
Though franchises might be the reason the movies do make more money, historically big actors and star power have been favored in the Hollywood movie industry. Basuroy, Chatterjee, Ravid, in their journal article, look at research done by different people and find many different results. For example, “Littman and Kohl (1989) and Sochay (1994) find that stars’ presence in a film’s cast has a significant effect on that film’s revenue. Similarly, Wallace, Seigerman, and Holbrook (1993, p. 23) conclude that “certain movie stars do make [a] demonstrable difference to the market success of the films in which they appear.” Though the research they cited was based on the films from the past, this can still be said about the films of today. If actors and star power didn’t have/bring any kind of significance or influence movie starts wouldn’t be getting paid in the amounts that they do, and casting directors wouldn’t hire them if they didn’t think they would make some money off of them. This isn’t the main reason they’re being hired, its their ability to act well that is, but that isn’t the sole reason either because there is an intention to have that person bring in some kind of revenue.
Lastly some say that it just all depends on what the movie is, how big of a budget they have and what type of movie one is making that determines whether or not a star and star power are important to a movie’s revenue success. Though there are many arguments and opinions surrounding the topic I agree with this the most. Star power does play a role in bring money in for a movie when the movie isn’t very well known, like and indie movie. Like BBC news explained it’s the franchise that people are most interested in, and this can be said about other big franchises or popular genre movies. Star power however can be important in bringing in revenue when the budgets for movies are also big because, according to Kalpesh Kaushik Desai and Suman Basuroy, from their article, even when they received negative reviews, the movie doesn’t seem to be affected by it.
In conclusion I do be believe that stars and star power play a significant role in bringing revenue for a movie when the movie itself either has a big budget to back up any negative reviews or the type/genre of movie isn’t as popular or well-known as others.
