Hollywood’s man problem

Paul Mescal’s starring role in Gladiator II – which opens today – has been met with a resounding shrug by critics. “A millennial knockoff”, “no Russell Crowe”, “puts the “meh” into Mescal.” Denzel Washington, 69, steals the movie. So what? Since Clarke Gable topped the highest grossing stars of the 1930s, Hollywood’s business model has relied on hot young male movie stars selling seats. These days, young men aren’t pulling the crowds in the same way, with 2024’s worldwide box office top 10 based almost entirely on studios’ intellectual property – resulting in a list of superhero masks, cartoons, monster movies, old timers and Timothée Chalamet.

Lights, camera, action movie: The highest grossing actors have tended to be male action stars. These are the top three bankers by decade:

• 1950s: James Stewart, Charlton Heston, William Holden
• 1960s: John Wayne, Julie Andrews, Paul Newman
• 1970s: Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, Harrison Ford
• 1980s: Harrison Ford, Dan Aykroyd, James Earl Jones
• 1990s: Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis
• 2000s: Orlando Bloom, Samuel L. Jackson, Morgan Freeman
• 2010s: Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey, Jr.

This year’s global top ten includes Inside Out 2; Deadpool and Wolverine, Despicable Me 4, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Venom: the Last Dance.

IP killed the movie star. There’s a generation of actors who started out in the IP-heavy 2010s and who can’t pull crowds into anything else.

Chris Hemsworth is box office poison, says Puck’s Hollywood newsletter. Furiosa: a Mad Max Saga took $173 million, costing $168 million to make and over $100 million to market.

Henry Cavill left cinemas empty in Argylle, while Adam Driver flopped in Megalopolis ($13 million take vs $120 million to make and $20 million to market).

The list goes on – Joaquin Phoenix in Joker: Folie a Deux, Bill Skarsgård in the Crow… If Robert Downey Jr. can switch from Iron Man to Doctor Doom in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, then no-one really cares who’s behind the mask.

What about Deadpool v Wolverine? Paul Newman and Robert Redford could bounce from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to The Sting. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman not so much.

Movies don’t matter anymore? Not so, according to Hollywood blogger the Entertainment Strategy Guy. In 2023, Amazon and Apple decided to start movies on the big screen to attract subscribers and gain extra cash. For Amazon and Disney+, creating hit TV series also relies on movie IP (see Mr and Mrs Smith and Rings of Power). Hit movies are still Hollywood’s apex predator.

Cometh the hour, cometh the woman: There was one woman, Julia Roberts, in the top ten bankers of the 1990s, alongside Tom Cruise, Will Smith and Tom Hanks.

Vanity Fair’s legendary annual Hollywood issue for 2025 dropped this month, with cover stars including Glen Powell, Zendaya, Nicole Kidman, Zoe Saldaña, Sydney Sweeney, Dev Patel, Josh O’Connor, Danielle Deadwyler, Jonathan Bailey, Ncuti Gatwa, Bill Skarsgård, and K-Pop singer-rapper Lisa.

• Bailey and Gatwa have yet to star in a big movie;
• O’Connor supported Zendaya in Challengers, her second hit of the year;
• Deadwyler is tipped for an Oscar for the Piano Lesson;
• Saldaña is the fourth highest grossing actor of all time;
• Kidman’s Babygirl opens in December, but her track record is good.

With his whirlwind hit Twisters, Powell is the last young man standing.