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<\/div>\n<\/div>\nBrad Pitt plays a former racing phenom in search of redemption in \u201cF1.\u201d (2025) (Warner Bros. Pictures\/Apple Original Films)<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Not too long ago, movie stars generated Hollywood\u2019s cultural cachet and powered its economic engine. A movie star\u2019s aspirational visage, honed for public appeal, could turn sometimes even small-scale movies into large-scale hits garnering over $100 million. For the last couple of decades, those days have felt like a faint memory. The box office success of \u201cIron Man\u201d in 2008, propelled by Robert Downey Jr.\u2019s star power, spurred studios to mine pop culture material to make intellectual property the star. The collapse of home video during the emergence of streaming further narrowed the studio margins required to produce star-fronted movies. So have we reached the end of the era in which celebrities can sell tickets on their name alone? Not exactly, but it seems these days, if movie stars want hits, they have to work harder than ever to twist themselves to fit the moment.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Over the last calendar year, star-driven movies ranging from \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d to \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d have climbed the box office. But the films have required above-the-line talent to be less like idols and more like salespeople. Actors have always been a vital part of a movie\u2019s publicity machine, appearing on late-night talk shows and on magazine covers in those weeks leading up to a movie\u2019s release. But now, reaching a decentralized moviegoing public who are immune to traditional studio outreach requires uncommon tenacity and ingenuity across screens large and small; podcasts mainstream and niche; and more. In the last year, your marquee idols are now making pizza, popping up on game shows like \u201cFamily Feud,\u201d cultivating brand deals and jumping through TikTok-ian hoops for your attention. Even Michael B. Jordan, who won the best acting Oscar in March for \u201cSinners,\u201d needs to show up to marketing-driven events like CinemaCon to promote his remake of \u201cThe Thomas Crown Affair.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Let\u2019s first consider Joseph Kosinski\u2019s high-octane racing flick \u201cF1.\u201d That film about a cocky former racing phenom in search of redemption starred Brad Pitt, a proven talent who most fits the classic movie star mold. Nevertheless, Pitt had a tall task ahead of him. Outside of \u201cFord v Ferrari\u201d (2019), recent racing movies (like the 2023 films \u201cGran Turismo\u201d and \u201cFerrari\u201d) have struggled to make their budget back. Also, Apple\u2019s track record at the box office could best be described as shaky by leaning on a theatrical strategy that prizes subscriber growth, such as limited releases of \u201cHighest 2 Lowest\u201d or \u201cThe Lost Bus,\u201d over ticket sales.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Additionally, Pitt\u2019s prolonged legal battle with Angelina Jolie after the two separated, which included Jolie\u2019s abuse allegations against Pitt (which the actor denied through his lawyer), had the potential to damage his star appeal.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n But Pitt and the film\u2019s production team approached the film\u2019s promotion and its financing from a variety of angles. One of its producers, David Leener, helped broker sponsorship deals with brands like Tommy Hilfiger, SharkNinja, Mercedes-AMG and more for Pitt\u2019s fictional racing team. Those ads reportedly amounted to over $40 million to help cover a portion of the film\u2019s production budget. In that sense, Pitt adeptly auctioned off his star image onscreen to make the calculus of his star vehicle work.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cMarty Supreme\u201d similarly intertwined the film\u2019s subject with its male star\u2019s image making. Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet\u2019s desire to make this story, of a midcentury American Jewish man hoping to dominate the table tennis world, an actual draw presented a chance to confirm his own box office appeal. He sent \u201cMarty Supreme\u201d jackets to celebrities such as Susan Boyle and Tom Brady, and even shared a video of himself on top of the Las Vegas Sphere.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Were these stunts Chalamet as Marty or Chalamet as himself? \u201cMarty Supreme\u201d muddied those waters when a satirical video dropped of Chalamet in a video meeting with executives planning marketing for the movie. While the actor mildly came under fire after his comments about ballet and opera, by crafting a persona built on audaciousness he helped make \u201cMarty Supreme\u201d the highest grossing A24 movie, if only to tease what he might do next.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe Housemaid,\u201d conversely, found twice the draw by matching the literary success of Freida McFadden\u2019s same-titled novel with known stars Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried. Like Pitt, Sweeney faced a precarious reintroduction to audiences following her ill-fated American Eagle denim campaign. While Sweeney\u2019s previous film \u201cChristy\u201d bombed, her role as a live-in maid in Paul Feig\u2019s erotic psychological thriller allowed her to tap the same sexy camp formula that made her rom-com \u201cAnyone But You\u201d a surprise hit. Sweeney and Seyfried further leaned into the film\u2019s playful aspect by appearing on \u201cCelebrity Family Feud,\u201d a viral moment that reached those at home and online.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Sweeney also relies on her Instagram to promote her ventures. In January, for instance, she posted a video of herself lacing the Hollywood sign with bras to announce her new lingerie line. On Instagram for \u201cThe Housemaid,\u201d Sweeney shared behind-the-scenes photos from the film that went viral. Her approach allowed her to link her film\u2019s campiness with her carefree candidness.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Emerald Fennell\u2019s reimagining of Emily Bront\u00eb\u2019s \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d relies on a similar formula: a popular literary property plus beautiful movie stars geared toward a female audience. She even added the kicker of a modern soundtrack by \u201cAlways Everywhere\u201d pop star Charli XCX. Interest (along with a little ire) was further piqued when Jacob Elordi was cast as Heathcliff, a character generally assumed to be Romani, and Margot Robbie as Catherine. The bodice ripper\u2019s titillating poster, featuring its two stars in a lover\u2019s embrace, also positioned the sexually complicated story as a simple, steamy romance.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Unlike Pitt and Sweeney, who attempted to skate around controversy, Robbie and Elordi turned theirs into marketing moments via fashion-oriented publicity stunts. The stars increased the perception of their mutual obsession, with Robbie sharing that on Valentine\u2019s Day during shooting, Elordi filled her dressing room with roses addressed from Heathcliff. Robbie later got signet rings for the two. Robbie also wore the Taj Mahal diamond necklace at the film\u2019s Los Angeles premiere, causing a stir when she referred to it as Elizabeth Taylor\u2019s necklace even though it was originally a gift from Mughal ruler Shah Jahan to his wife Mumtaz Mahal. The gaffe opened her to criticisms online of whitewashing the pendant\u2019s origin.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Those decisions engaged an audience looking for a star-centered romance, and baited those searching for a darker take on the book\u2019s toxic love story to rage online about the press\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.sanjuandailystar.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Brad Pitt plays a former racing phenom in search of redemption in \u201cF1.\u201d (2025) (Warner Bros. Pictures\/Apple Original Films) Not too long ago, movie stars generated Hollywood\u2019s cultural cachet and powered its economic engine. A movie star\u2019s aspirational visage, honed for public appeal, could turn sometimes even small-scale movies into large-scale hits garnering over $100 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2383994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2383993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Is-the-movie-star-back-Sort-of.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2383993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2383993"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2383993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2383995,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2383993\/revisions\/2383995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2383994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2383993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2383993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2383993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}