THE ROLE OF STARS IN THE SUCCESS OF FILMS

The Role of Stars in the Success of Films

The Role of Stars in the Success of Films

Introduction

The involvement of the stars in the film industry is significant as there are thousands of actors and actresses working in the industry. It is interesting that a small group of stars has been able to grow as top performers in the industry, and they are able to demand millions of dollars for performing in one film and different perks and profit deals are offered to them. The top stars in the Hollywood that include Tom Cruise, Jim Carry, Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt are able to get around $25 million for their films and back-end deals of these stars can increase this figure more. Actor Tom Cruise has earned around $70 million in the first part of the film Mission Impossible, whereas another $92 million was paid to him for the next part of the film, which was 22% of the total return. There is a heavy influence of stars on the development of the film because they generate assurance from the producers, exhibitors and distributors of the film. The worth of these stars has been a highlighted and debatable topic in the press for many years therefore; this paper will evaluate the role of stars in the success of the films (Yudelson, 2009, p. 10).

Discussion

There are some practitioners arguing that stars are the main reason behind the success of many top films whereas some people have doubts regarding the high compensation of stars. An article was written by Forbes in which he compared many films revealed that fewer than half of the hit films featured an actor having top billing before in minimum one hit movie (Albert, 1998, p. 254). He further stated that the top three movies had no stars which mean that it is the movie itself and not the stars that make the movie hit. Since producers of the films have many doubts regarding the return of investment therefore, contractual agreement are made with the stars in order to secure their investments. These contracts are causing the young talent to come under pressure, and this is the reason that the success of the film and involvement of stars have become a debatable topic in the recent times. The stakes of the investors are extremely high because of the enormous financial bets and not just because of the high amount of money paid to the stars (Eliashberg et.al, 2000, p. 231).

The films are considered to be tentative for the filmmakers, as well as the consumers because consumers do not know that whether watching a film will be a good experience for them or not. Moreover, if they do not like the film still, they cannot refund their ticket. According, the producers of the film take substantial risk because the revenue distribution in the movie industry is concentrated. The example is that 20% of the best films earn around 75% ...