Monday Morning Quarterback Part II
By BOP Staff
June 17, 2015
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Edwin Davies: I'd describe his rise as meteoric, but only because I can't think of a more extreme superlative. He went from being a supporting player on a great but cultish sitcom to a reliable supporting player in acclaimed movies like Zero Dark Thirty and Moneyball to a global megastar in the space of just a few years. He's been incredibly smart with his choices during that time, but also worked for the better part of a decade in relative obscurity, so this all feels well earned.
In terms of whether he's the biggest movie star in the world, I feel that he's absolutely in the conversation, but you'd need to test his appeal away from huge franchises to tell for certain. After all, Sam Worthington was the star of Avatar, Terminator Salvation and Clash of the Titans all in the space of one year, but he was never able to convert that into any sort of success outside of those films. He was much less charismatic and distinctive a presence than Pratt, though, so I have little doubt that he could turn his consecutive hits into enduring success, but currently we haven't seen his stardom tested yet the way that Robert Downey, Jr.'s or Jennifer Lawrence's were.
Jason Barney: Saying that he is the biggest star in the world right now is a bit premature. He is definitely headed to huge stardom, but there are a lot of people who never saw Guardians of the Galaxy and he is still on the rise. A $200 million dollar opening is a huge addition to his resume and puts him further on the map.
The potential is there, though. Especially if Guardians of the Galaxy sequels are put on the right weekends, if his role in the Jurassic franchise continues. I know there have been some whispers about him being the next Indiana Jones.....he's getting pretty big.
Felix Quinonez: I definitely think he's big at the time but wouldn't go so far as to say he's the biggest movie star right now. It would be crazy to pin this huge opening solely or even primarily on his shoulders. In order to really see how big of a star he is he'd have to open a movie that doesn't have a huge built-in audience. Guardians had the MCU brand name and this had the dinosaurs going for it. His star is definitely on the rise but he's no Tom Cruise or Will Smith (at their respective peaks).
Bruce Hall: I keep going back to Harrison Ford, circa early Eighties. Ford's bread and butter is "lovable rogue who can charm his way out of a fight or at least make you laugh trying". But it took a while, even after becoming a household name, before Ford could legitimately land in this kind of a conversation.
Things move faster these days, and Pratt has gone from "eccentric supporting cast member on semi-fringe show" to "guy who swears he's not the next Indiana Jones" in even less time than his not-predecessor. I do agree however, with the notion that he will have to develop a franchise-independent popularity of his own, or become so closely identified with a particular property that it's impossible to imagine anyone else in the role.
You know, like Indiana Jones.
Michael Lynderey: I had this argument with a friend of mine all the time, mostly about Shia LaBeouf, but also a few others. Even after Transformers and Indiana Jones, my friend wouldn't acknowledge that LaBeouf was a big star because those were all pre-prepared franchises (Eagle Eye making $100 million made it more okay). I vaguely agreed with him, but Pratt is someone who tests the question in a similar but maybe more difficult way. Guardians of the Galaxy had the Marvel brand, a slow summer, and great reviews - and of course, on August 1st, few actually went to see the film to see Chris Pratt. But didn't his charisma make the movie into what it was?
Jurassic World is a film that oft used his name in the marketing, and its box office performance defies logic. But it's also the fourth in a franchise that has already broken the opening weekend record twice over. He should get a lot of the credit for Jurassic World, of course, but is Chris Pratt is a bigger star than Bradley Cooper or Jennifer Lawrence? Melissa McCarthy? I would say no, but I would also say that Hollywood largely doesn't have movie stars anymore, at least not in the old-fashioned way. There are so many of these blockbusters being made now with devoted audiences who essentially bought a ticket on the first day of filming, that it's hard to say who's a legitimate draw.
For comparison, just look at Chris Pratt's co-stars. Bryce Dallas Howard also had a big role in Spider-Man 3, which opened with $151 million and of course broke the opening weekend record in 2007. Shouldn't she get some credit (and for Terminator 4, Twilight 3, and one of her previous two films, The Help)? Or how about Ty Simpkins? Not only did he have a big role in Jurassic World, he was also a notable co-star in another film on the list of the four biggest openings of all time, Iron Man 3.
Those aren't exactly fair comparisons. But I think what I'm trying to say is that defining a movie star in the modern day is extremely difficult. Comparing blockbuster openings is probably the wrong way to do it. It's in relatively smaller films that do well consistently that you can really judge star power, with actors like Denzel Washington, Adam Sandler, and Melissa McCarthy (although for the record, my friend does think Chris Pratt is a really big star. Go figure).
Ryan Kyle: Chris Pratt is definitely one of the biggest stars in the world at the moment. He's the closest thing we've ever got to a new Harrison Ford and I bet Disney is kicking themselves for not carving out a role for him in the new Star Wars at this point. Smart choices and talent and a great personality in the media have made his rise pretty extraordinary, although he has always been working steadily in supporting roles for the past few years. It will be interesting to see what happens when Chris is cast in an untested property or smaller film and see if he can still pull in big opening weekends upwards of $20 million like Will Smith, Denzel Washington, and Brad Pitt can.
Kim Hollis: I'd argue that he is the current biggest star. His ascension does feel reminiscent of Harrison Ford, but also reminds me of Robert Downey Jr.’s comeback a few years ago as well. They both played superheroes and got a tremendous bump in popularity for doing so. They both were in some sort of known commodity (Sherlock Holmes for Downey, Jurassic World for Pratt) and both films got plenty of media attention. Chris Pratt has now starred in two films that surprised everyone with the box office they were able to accumulate, and one of them is the biggest opener of all-time.
I think what this will come down to is Pratt’s career choices moving forward, although I expect there will be inevitable backlash against him, just as there has been with Johnny Depp and RDJ. With that said, his next couple of films seem to be smart selections. Magnificent Seven is an update of a classic and puts him onscreen with Denzel Washington (and in a film directed by Antoine Fuqua). The two of them together offer a potent multi-quadrant combination. And his sci-fi project with Jennifer Lawrence, Passengers, appears to be on the verge of being official. I think the key for Pratt is that he’s choosing projects that he thinks are fun (and that he’d enjoy seeing on the big screen), and he’s been very smart so far.
David Mumpower: I agree with Kim that he is probably the world's biggest star. I understand that everyone is reticent to hand him the title after so few films. My counter to this logic is that when films universally overachieve, we always give credit to the actors even when we are dubious about them. In hindsight, people talked up Orlando Bloom too quickly when he was in Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean. No one would argue he's an opener. So, that's the cautionary tale. I just don't think Pratt fits that narrative, though.
He has a celebrity wife (Anna Faris), which immediately adds to his Hollywood mystique. Pratt was the face of the biggest comic book film of 2014 against fairly significant competition, and now he's just somehow blended elements of Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park into the same film. Maybe I'm looking for reasons because the tracking and estimates were so far off on Jurassic World, but since this has happened twice in a row with Pratt, I have to start thinking it's no longer a coincidence. To my mind, Chris Pratt is what Ryan Reynolds was supposed to be as a box office star. They both have the look and the charisma. The difference comes solely down to track record.
Despite being a virtual unknown at the time, Pratt is a key player in Zero Dark Thirty and Moneyball, and I would add that his scene in Moneyball was the one that sold people in the advertising. Now, what he's done with his last two action films is the stuff of myth and legend. So, when I look at the landscape and seeing Robert Downey Jr. failing to open The Judge, I find myself accepting that people have grown tired of him. Who's left and in the argument for biggest box office performer? To my mind, the other candidates are Jennifer Lawrence and The Rock. The Jennifer Lawrence one is trickier because it's difficult differentiating her from Katniss despite the fact that she's had other big prestige films as well. But if it's not Jennifer Lawrence, I find myself debating a simple question. If I needed a blockbuster hit tomorrow, and I could pick anyone in the world, would I take The Rock or Chris Pratt? Two to three years ago, I - and I alone - would have said The Rock. If I'm doing the casting tomorrow? My first phone call is unquestionably to Chris Pratt, and that's in spite of what The Rock did with Furious 7 and San Andreas, the latter of which was sold primarily on his presence.
Plus, and there's no way to quantify this, people seem to love Chris Pratt because of his humility and earnest nature, and this goes all the way back to his time on Everwood, where they gave his character more story simply because they seemed to like the actor. The reason why Sean Penn has never opened a movie in his life is because people don't want to put up with the aggravation. Pratt's just the opposite. As crazy as it may sound, Chris Pratt is now the biggest box office draw in the world.