REAL STAR POWER

WHO ARE THE REAL HOLLYWOOD STARS ?

If you take a look at the top 20 highest grossing films of all time, you quickly realize that only one had an A-lister in the lead role.  The real stars of these films were the high-impact visual effects and/or computer-generated animation.
  Top 20 Grossers

• Avatar
• Titanic
• Harry Potter - Deathly Hallows Part 2
• Transformers - Dark of the Moon
• The Lord of the Rings - Return of the King
• Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest
• Toy Story 3
• Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides
• Alice in Wonderland (2010)
• The Dark Knight
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
• Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End
• Harry Potter - Deathly Hallows Part 1
• The Lion King
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers
• Star Wars - Episode 1- The Phantom Menace
• Shrek 2
• Jurassic Park

A-lister, Johnny Depp, in the Pirate franchise was the only recognizable star in any of these films.  The rest were cast with unknowns or limited (at the time) star power actors.
It appears that this long-term trend will continue, as upcoming movie franchises are copy-catting the former winners.  The super-spectacular effects movies are what consumers demand and it makes little difference to them who is cast in the acting roles (which for moviegoers are ancillary to the movie's appeal). Additionally, customers expect each new film to top the previous one's visual effects.  That places the "star" power in the hands of the superstar special effects artists which now earn over $1 million per film.

Cheers and Happy Movie Going!
Jim Lavorato