Everyone loves seeing their favorite celebrities on screen at the movies. Unfortunately, a large portion of them only serve to attract large audiences, thus taking desperately needed jobs away from small actors- establishing priority of fame and fortune over talent and opportunity.
A frightening majority of movies being produced in today’s society present a star-studded cast as their one main attraction. Many movies can make enormous profit from fans flocking to the theater to see well known actors and actresses
In fact, in the most recent full-year summary from Rotten Tomatoes, “Best Movies 2022”, 5 out of 10 of the top 10 movies have at least one actor who is instantly recognizable to audiences- perhaps most notably, Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick and Robert Pattinson in The Batman.
Both were extremely high-grossing movies with The Batman earning 771 million from the box office, and Top Gun: Maverick earning 1.49 billion.
Is it the plot of the movie that creates such appeal?
Well, when asked about examples of movies with notable actors in the cast, like Dune with Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya, and Uncharted with Tom Holland and Mark Walhberg, Victor students Olivia P and Mianna C described the films as “Not memorable” “Just, eh” and “Boring”.
Why then did Dune and Uncharted both make around 402 million dollars?
After all the criticism we hear “I love Tom Holland” “I’m obsessed”. And then one can begin to see why.
In truth, any movie can prosper as long as fans come to fill up the box office, and the producer’s pockets.
The same prosperity, however, is not guaranteed for all actors- who have an essential role in realizing the visions of directors and creating extravagant films.
Even commercials, which have long been a popular and accessible pathway for new actors to kick start their career, are slowly becoming congested with well-recognized actors.
While amicable celebrities may create more buzz for your product than an unknown actor, is that really worth enforcing the harsh barriers that fresh actors already have to jump through to make it in the business?
An article from The Guardian reports that a shocking 98% of actors do not make a living in the industry. In addition to this, according to an article from Zippia, there are currently over 11,286 actors in the United States. Therefore, statistically speaking, about 11,060 people in the industry are majorly unsuccessful in the pursuit of their career.
Only when we begin to question the ways movies are made and casted to create ultimate profit do we realize that big Hollywood producers value quantity over quality.
Perhaps giving a chance to one of the thousands of actors in the industry does not guarantee an amazing turnout, but it does work to equalize the playing field in this extremely difficult career.
