The other day (scroll down a few posts and refresh your memory) I wrote that the world’s premier expectity factory American Idol has had to change its business model, as the “idols” that come out of the factory are no longer worth much. The money is in the expectity phase, not when the artist is in fact an “idol”, then s/he’s a isbeen.
Not surprisingly, the movie business is facing the same problem. Doing the math on the upfront payments that this year’s Oscar nominee movie stars received, it turns out that all the stars together earned less than Julia Roberts (snatching the Oscar for Erin Brockovich) made alone in 2001.
Why? Well, take a look at some of the most popular films this last year – movies like Avatar, District 9, A Serious Man, The Hurt Locker, Precious. Not a good-old movie star in sight (but a fair amount of no-names who soon got hyped).
According tot he New Tork Times, Hollywood studios have started talking about the new movie audience as the “what’s next- people” who don’t care about fame earned yesterday, but expect to see something even greater tomorrow.
Hollywood execs and movie stars – welcome to the Expectations society! Please repeat after me – celebrity was yestermillennium, expectity is this new millennium.
What does Nextopia mean?
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Illustrations for the Nextopia book blog appendix
How do you explain the decline in the status of celebs by the Expectations Theory?
Is it possible that we know what they will deliver and therefor don’t get that excited to go and see a movie by them?
Omer,
Good question. And great answer! I agree with you, I’d say that celebrities are “isbeens”, people are more interested in what’s next than in what is. Russell Crowe is less interesting, since his name is associated with great, but past, performances, whereas Sam Worthington is more interesting, since his name is associated with a future, brilliant career and great performances.
emvehå,
MD