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I am from Europe and I am a moderate movie fan. But neverless I know obviously the big names. Seems like every decade had plenty household names born that were known pretty much by "everybody" around the world, people who did not even watch the movies knew their names. Judging by their filmography most of them had their best roles between 30-40 years old span. I mean who has never heard of Rober De Niro, Bruce Willis, Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford, Kevin Costner? All those guys are old now and there seems to be no succecors. The youngest houeshold name in movie industry for me is Leonardo Di Caprio. And he is 45 years old already. By household name I mean person whose name is known throughout the world even by people who do not really watch movies. If we take into consideration that prime years for actors are usually between 30-40 years old span. Are there any real movie stars compared in fame to how famous Tom Cruise or Kevin Costner were in their prime years? What are the biggest names now under 40 years old. Ryan Gosling? Chris Hermsworth? I know of plenty of people who have never heard their names even though most of them would probably recognize their faces if their fotos were shown to them, they have no idea who they are when told just name. I do not know a single person who has never heard of names Tom Cruise, Kevin Costner, Sylvester Stallone or Clint Eastwood. I wonder what is the cause for this state? Are there no more good movies being made? What is your opinion? Maybe in United States it is different and Ryan Gosling, Chris Hemsworth and other young actors are as famous as Kevin Costner or Sylvester Stallone used to be? I am interested in your opinions.
I think it's a combination of industry control, and changing consumer habits. The brand IP and corporation are the movie stars of today, instead of the individual. Tom Holland isn't the star, Spider-Man is, and Sony can reboot and recast at any time. To compare, Stallone is linked to Rocky Balboa for life (though he doesn't have full rights to the movie/character). That's why modern actors that are the face of a popular brand, are typically flops when they take the lead in an unknown movie or less popular brand.
For the under-40 talent pool, it reminds me of American Idol. The individual can be reasonably charismatic for their time, but they're ultimately expendable and replaceable. The industry is so regulated and lined with so many eggshells, the individual can't break out and become a superstar on the level of past generations.
There are also many different forms of entertainment on TV and the Internet/social media and foreign markets, so America's film industry isn't the center of attention that it once was. You can film yourself being funny while playing video games, and become a millionaire. A significant portion of kids aspire to be a Youtube star, and that seems to be impacting the legacy entertainment industry. There are different paths to celebrity and fortune today, but none of them seem to capture the attention of the world the way the icons of the past did.
I think it's a combination of industry control, and changing consumer habits. The brand IP and corporation are the movie stars of today, instead of the individual. Tom Holland isn't the star, Spider-Man is, and Sony can reboot and recast at any time. To compare, Stallone is linked to Rocky Balboa for life (though he doesn't have full rights to the movie/character). That's why modern actors that are the face of a popular brand, are typically flops when they take the lead in an unknown movie or less popular brand.
For the under-40 talent pool, it reminds me of American Idol. The individual can be reasonably charismatic for their time, but they're ultimately expendable and replaceable. The industry is so regulated and lined with so many eggshells, the individual can't break out and become a superstar on the level of past generations.
There are also many different forms of entertainment on TV and the Internet/social media and foreign markets, so America's film industry isn't the center of attention that it once was. You can film yourself being funny while playing video games, and become a millionaire. A significant portion of kids aspire to be a Youtube star, and that seems to be impacting the legacy entertainment industry. There are different paths to celebrity and fortune today, but none of them seem to capture the attention of the world the way the icons of the past did.
In the Golden Age of Hollywood, there were what? A dozen studios? All told they might produce a few hundred movies a year. Your local theater might show a third of those, so the stars of those movies were real stars. They dominated popular media.
Then television came along and offered more. But even there, for decades most American homes didn't get more than three or four channels, and all networks went off the air around midnight. So again, the number of stars were limited.
Today, there are hundreds of studios all over the world producing hundreds of movies each year. Most people have in the neighborhood of 120+ TV channels that run content 24/7.
Then there is the Internet, which not only makes all of those movies and TV shows available, but produces millions of hours of content each year.
So there are still movie stars today. And TV stars. And music stars. And Internet stars. And there are the very weird celebrities like the Kardashians, Paris Hilton, etc., who are famous for being famous. They haven't really accomplished anything.
So rather than a few dozen stars that everyone knows, today we have hundreds if not thousands of stars, each with their own niche audience.
I think the point the OP was making is that today we have a lack of global stars who have international brand, among the younger generation of actors. We still have global household names in popular music. People in Japan, Germany, and Chile know of Tom Hanks. I don't think anyone of the more recent generation of actors has that global name recognition.
What I find alarming is that the Milennial generation in the US, with the exception of young film buffs, never heard of Katherine Hepburn or Spencer Tracey. When I was 25, most people back then certainly had heard of The Marx Brothers, WC Fields, Charlie Chaplin, even though those actors belonged to generations of the past. Ask any average 17 year old who is Charlie Chaplin and they haven't a clue unless there were special circumstances.
I think the point the OP was making is that today we have a lack of global stars who have international brand, among the younger generation of actors. We still have global household names in popular music. People in Japan, Germany, and Chile know of Tom Hanks. I don't think anyone of the more recent generation of actors has that global name recognition.
That was exactly my point.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coney
What I find alarming is that the Milennial generation in the US, with the exception of young film buffs, never heard of Katherine Hepburn or Spencer Tracey. When I was 25, most people back then certainly had heard of The Marx Brothers, WC Fields, Charlie Chaplin, even though those actors belonged to generations of the past. Ask any average 17 year old who is Charlie Chaplin and they haven't a clue unless there were special circumstances.
A also think that lack of good, memorable movies is part of the problem. When you look at the movies in 1980s,1990s that were nominated to the oscars. Almost every year all five of them were big, memorable hits. Every star of those years had iconic roles that were attached to them forever. And now? I honestly would have trouble to enlist some memorable movies from this decade that would stay in my memory . When I look this decade oscar nominations for the best movie almost all that I see are some uknown tittles.
Over saturation. There's too many Chris actors to keep track of.
When I was younger I did tend to gravitate to movies with certain actors. These days definitely seems to be more IP centric.
Ultimately, I just don't care about any of them. Keep pretty busy with real life, still consume a fair amount of media, but it's usually just to relax.
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