You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n
Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n AAA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Hollywood suffered some major losses last year. Gene Hackman<\/a>, Robert Redford<\/a>, Diane Keaton<\/a> \u2013 these 1970s movie legends helped herald a golden age in cinema<\/a>, a time when studios no longer constructed the star but the star constructed themselves.<\/p>\n Granted, they weren\u2019t the last celebrities to rise to such mega-fame. Several younger movie stars picked up the baton, from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom Cruise to Julia Roberts and Angelina Jolie. Though perhaps less free-spirited than their \u201970s predecessors, they were still major drawcards, even for films with less spectacle or sub-par reviews.<\/p>\n Legends like Robert Redford helped define what a \u201cmovie star\u201d is. Will any emerging stars ever reach his level?<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Fast-forward to today, however, and the certified movie star is an endangered species. Sure, celebrities like Paul Mescal and Sydney Sweeney are churning out titles but they seem more like \u201cit boys\u201d or \u201cit girls\u201d than movie superstars. Having their name on a film doesn\u2019t guarantee it\u2019ll smash the box office (just look at the commercial flop<\/a> that was Christy).<\/p>\n Even older movie stars, those who secured the title back in the \u201990s or early 2000s, are struggling to get butts in seats now. Dwayne \u201cThe Rock\u201d Johnson\u2019s The Smashing Machine lost millions<\/a> against its budget, while Julia Roberts\u2019 After the Hunt only grossed $10.6 million<\/a> worldwide. Leonardo DiCaprio\u2019s award-winning One Battle After Another even struggled commercially<\/a>, regardless of its leading man, star-studded supporting cast, Oscar-winning director and incredible reviews.<\/p>\n There was a time when having The Rock\u2019s name on a movie would guarantee box office success. Times have changed.<\/span>AP<\/span><\/p>\n So, what\u2019s going on? Has the loss of those like Keaton and Redford marked the end of the movie-star era?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/a><\/div>\n Bruce Isaacs, an associate professor in film studies at the University of Sydney, says movie stars aren\u2019t necessarily disappearing but the concept of stardom has changed.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s still rare for a Hollywood film to try to open without a movie star \u2026 When [Christopher] Nolan releases The Odyssey, it\u2019s still important that Matt Damon is the lead,\u201d he says. \u201c[Stars] are still cultural icons but they\u2019re circulated through hyper-mediation, through constant social media networks.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s the reason many of the stories around Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet\u2019s Critics\u2019 Choice Awards<\/a> win this month focused on his speech to girlfriend Kylie Jenner<\/a>. Thanks to social media, many know more about his romantic life than his full filmography.<\/p>\n Having access to this much personal information may initially increase people\u2019s interest in actors but each of them is competing with a slew of others, all of whom are trying to capture the same eyeballs. Zendaya<\/a>, for instance, was sublime in Challengers but some still may not recognise her name \u2013 such \u201cpan-culture\u201d has ceased to exist.<\/p>\n Gone are the days when everyone in an intergenerational family knew the name of a movie star.<\/span>Alamy Stock Photo<\/span><\/p>\n This access also strips stars of their mystique, a defining feature of those such as Hackman and Redford. You can\u2019t be a larger-than-life legend when fans know what you ate for breakfast.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/a><\/div>\n Further, if an actor\u2019s persona is displayed online, it\u2019s more likely they\u2019ll get a negative reaction from some observers, which could slow (or even stop) their stardom trajectory. For example, many believed Sweeney would be the \u201cnext big thing\u201d after Anyone but You<\/a> but her ties to conservative politics and a questionable jeans campaign sent her on a far rockier path<\/a>.<\/p>\n Stars ultimately represent the era of cinema they operate within, Isaacs says. The earliest movie stars \u2013 Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart \u2013 were highly managed, just as the films were. By the \u201970s, stars were given more agency, starring in more experimental, auteur-led films and promoting them in a way that suited their individual goals. Stars of the \u201980s, \u201990s and 2000s were predominantly about box-office clout \u2013 Tom Hanks became one of the highest-paid actors of the 1990s and early 2000s off the likes of Forrest Gump and Saving Private Ryan, while Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger were the selling point for big blockbuster action movies such as the Rambo and Terminator series of films, among many others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Related Article<\/h2>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Related Article<\/h2>\n
<\/div>\n