How things quickly change

[wboxoffice]

Actors like Will Smith and Tom Cruise have chosen throughout most of their careers to be featured in "blockbusters"... They came this year with 2 big action fantasy movie Oblivion and After Earth, that both missed the 100 million mark.

 

Then here is all of a sudden Brad Pitt, who oftens chooses smaller movies, with a big budget movie in the same vein, and litterally destroys their numbers.  And just like that, he puts himself on top, while there are question marks around them.

 

Things change so quickly in this business. 

 

I also want to make a little comment about Kevin Costner, even though he has not had a blockbuster since the 90's, it's nice to see him back on top in Man of Steel.  Sure it's a supporting role, but he was featured a lot in the trailers, and it's nice to see him "cool" and "popular" again.  He also did a great job acting wise in the movie.

[kitik]

Actors and stars are obviously nowhere near as important as they used to be back in the 80's and 90's, it's all about characters and franchises these days.

 

That said, with the right hook these guys can still be big. WWZ had much more appealing marketing than Oblivion or AE, and it's just more of a concept that people want to see.

 

Actually watching the zombie apocalypse is far more interesting than the other 2 movies that are set post-apocalypse.

 

For the record, I saw all three movies, and while WWZ has a more appealing tagline and marketing, I felt that Oblivion was by far the strongest movie of the three.

[ChD]

You can't really compare those, in my opinion.

Will Smith had After Earth, directed by M. Night Shyamalan. With the director's reputation, the movie was deemed to be a flop. Also, the studio abandoned all hope on this movie and released it on the worst weekend possible, in the most crowded summer in good years. I don't say it Smith's fault. It's the studio's, the marketing department's and the director's fault.

 

Tom Cruise had a blockbuster movie released in April. Do I need to say more? If it was in Summer, it would've easily made the same numbers as World War Z.

 

Brad Pitt is known around the world. He chooses small movie... Nah, I wouldn't say that. He had the advantage of a decent marketing on the movie, a studio that supported the movie throughout its production (that indicates a smaller chance at abandoning it later), and being an adaptation of a pretty known book, with an interesting story (Yeah, this indicates that WWZ is a little bit better). Also, people have been looking for a decent Thriller for some time now (Look at AE, disappointment).

Tom Cruise had a more Sci-Fi Drama rather than a Sci-Fi Action. Still... Brad Pitt has the advantage of choosing a good movie, but barely. I say that both Will Smith and Tom Cruise had things that worked against them, like studio abandonment and bad release date.