Are stars still important?

Angelina Jolie

Has your star 'sold' a film?
Although it hasn't come out yet, 'Maleficent', based on the fairytale 'Sleeping Beauty', is set to be successful because of the casting involving Angelina Jolie as the main character and antagonist, Maleficent. Jolie normally does action based films, such as Salt, Tomb Raider and Wanted, which means that Maleficent, as a fantasy adventure film, wouldn't typically attract the same target audience as Jolie's usual films. However, emphasis has been placed on Angelina Jolie during the advertising process, particularly with the film posters and trailer, as opposed to the film's protagonist Aurora from the fairytale version, to highlight to everyone that she plays a big part in this film. This would encourage her fans to come and watch the film simply because she is in it, despite the fact it probably isn't their usual kind of film, and therefore this widens the market in therms of target audience for the film, making it more likely to be successful.

Are the star's fans loyal?
It is unclear whether Angelina Jolie's fanbase remains a loyal one, as she does not have an official Twitter or Facebook page for her fans to use, however she does have nearly 2 million fans who have 'liked' a fan-run Facebook page who continue to post positive comments about the star, and frequent users of the fan-site 'Team Jolie', which shows how people continue to support her. Furthermore, she is still talked about frequently in the media, which suggests that there are large amounts of people still interested in her. Many of her films have been successful as she continues to get fans coming to see her latest work, purely because she is the star, which further suggests how her fans are probably loyal ones.

Has your star had a 'film flop'?
'Life or Something Like It' was probably one of Jolie's worst films, in terms of ratings, reviews and finance. It was criticised as a 'shallow story' and only made $14.4 million back from its $40 million budget. Not many people saw the film and not many people have even heard of it, even though it had been released just one year after her popular 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'. However, Jolie was still fairly early into her career and still developing a fan-base.

"Beyond the curious miscasting of Jolie, who can't quite turn lazy flirtatiousness into existential longing, Life or Something Like It offers few diversions." -- Mark Holcomb, Village Voice

What is the star's most financially successful film?
Mr and Mrs Smith (2005) was Angelina Jolie's most successful film, grossing $183.6 million in the US and $478,336,279 worldwide - a box office hit. Here she stars alongside Brad Pitt, and this is where she fell in love with him and they have been in a relationship in real-life ever since. Despite its success though, it received mixed reviews both positive and negative.

Why was the film successful?
The reason why the film was so successful was initially down to the casting. Both Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are very famous actors, and so by targeting both of their large fan-bases, the target audience altogether would have been very large. The film also received many positive reviews from critics about both the plot and the performance of the characters before the film was even released, which further would have encouraged people to see it. Another point that could be used is the fact it is near to a hybrid genre of both romantic comedy and action film, which widens the market still because it attracts those who like action films, those who like 'rom-coms', and those who like both. In addition to this, a lot of violence and sex was cut from the film, in order to reduce the certificate rating to a PG-13, which means a wider variety of audiences, due to age, could go and see the film, and therefore more people in general may have gone to see the film.

Where was the film distributed?
The film was distributed widely across America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australasia, which would open up a wider target audience and generate more money, although its popularity mostly came from its home place, the USA.


What are issues with 'stars'?
The issue with many stars is that they become known for starring in once genre of film, and so after a while all of their films seem to be repetitive and very similar, and so people would get very bored of the star. On the other hand, this could also be true of actors who can do a variety of genres, because after starring in all kinds of things, it is difficult to get any better at their work, and so their career would also come to an end. A good thing about Angelina Jolie is on the surface, she does a lot of action films that appeal to a certain audience to build her fan-base, but then instead of just continuing with this until people get bored of her, she branches out into other genres such as fantasy, love or drama, showing that she can do much more, and so her career has not reached the end yet.