Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Robert Pattinson is a genuine movie star


Brent Lang of The Wrap just doesn't get it. Plain and simple. In his provocatively-titled piece 'Zac Efron and the Incredible Shrinking Teen Idol Stars', Land submits that the newest generation of young stars (Zac Efron, Robert Pattinson, Miley Cyrus, etc) have disappointed at the box office even as the numbers he uses fail to bear that out. Once again, a pundit has fallen into the classic trap: Because a movie star's latest movie has failed to match up with his or her all-time best performances, said actor's star must be fading. But it fails to take into account two obvious factors: not every film an actor makes is identical in appeal and marketability, and a star cannot be expected to top their previous best every time out of the gate.

As I've said any number of occasions, movie stars are worth certain paydays for certain projects.

The absurd idea that a small intimate drama starring a given actor should be expected to perform as well as a crowd-pleasing genre picture is asinine. In fact, such expectations actually discourage actors from stretching or trying artier or more challenging works.

Sure Remember Me 'only' made $55 million worldwide (on a budget of just $16 million), but that means that $55 million worth of tickets were sold completely on the shoulders of one Robert Pattinson (quick, raise your hands if you saw that one for Pierce Brosnan or Chris Cooper....?).

Thus, quite obviously, Robert Pattinson shouldn't be getting paid nearly as much for Remember Me as he did for Twilight Saga: Eclipse. He didn't, so the film's box office should not be judged on the same level.

Pattinson and Efron could spend their entire careers doing rip-offs of, respectively Twilight and High School Musical. The fact that they are instead making more challenging pictures, and still posting decent returns, means that they are absolutely bankable names on a reasonable budget

Star power isn't opening something that is already highly appealing to a mass audience that has the benefit of your name on the poster. Star power is scoring a reasonable or better opening weekend for a film that has nothing to offer except your name on the poster. On that scale, Miley Cyrus, Zac Efron, and Robert Pattinson are genuine movie stars.


Article edited by KstewRobFans to only include Rob's portion; Full article at The Huffington Post

7 comments:

♪♫ Yaelfica ♪♫ said...

i agree almost completely coz remember me was not just a piece with his name on the poster..it is actually a very GOOD movie..imho

tks for sharing this with us RPL!!

SmittenWithRob said...

This article raises a good point (san Miley Cyrus) about actors; the boxoffice profits aren't the whole story! People don't see that, they just see the $$$ and deem whether it is a success or failure, but there's so many other things to take into account! The greatest actors of all time have taken risks and done small-budget films that didn't make a lot of money, but have helped establish them as actors. I see that Rob is challenging himself and choosing a great mix of projects. That's what will distinguish him from a lot of other young Hollywood stars.

GO ROB!!

virginia said...

I read this post on HuffPo earlier and thought it was the best Id read on the subject. I encourage everyone to read the whole thing bc it cites great examples and double standards. One quote that really stood out:
"Both Chris Nolan pictures cost around $180 million, yet one will only make around $700 million worldwide while the Batman sequel grossed a billion. So obviously Inception is a stinker and Nolan should be laughed out of town, right?"

twilightnan said...

I totally agree well over 100% w/ @ Yaelfica,@virginia,and smittenWithRob..Remember me was a low budget film that showcased Rob's talent as an actor outside the Twilight Saga..I hate it when critics said it was not a success!..did they watched the same film??..as the article said 55 million tickets for the film were sold on Rob's name alone..even Pierce or the other award winning actor could not do...hurry up April 2011!!

Princy said...

He's gonna make it big.
and its gonna be better than Twilight.
Rob has talent embedded in him...
n moreover he sure is an amazing guy. =)

Calihi27 said...

Hell to the Yea he is a genuine movie star! Rob is such a good actor with such depth. He will only get better and better. I wish him nothing bu the best for his long and successful career!

Unknown said...

Robert Pattinson by me is one of best movie actors. He knows how to make ok movie into something much more. I will I will check now some new movies to watch. I haven't seen him for a wile.