Monday Morning Quarterback Part I

By BOP Staff

February 10, 2009

Just look at all that roid rage.

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To my mind, the debate comes down to Barrymore vs. Aniston. The latter actress has had three of her last five major films make north of $85 million with none falling under $36 million. That's impressive. Meanwhile, Barrymore has 5 $100+ million movies on her resume, three of which she may legitimately claim were based a lot upon her appeal. And the most noteworthy scene of a fourth, Scream, is great because of her. She has been a relatively unheralded draw for a long time now, but she has suffered a couple of relatively epic bombs over the past five years with Duplex and Lucky You. Fever Pitch and Music & Lyrics (a personal favorite of mine) both did about best case scenario box office, but I still think that as of this moment, Jennifer Aniston is the biggest draw of the (impressive) group.

Brandon Scott: It's due to Justin Long, clearly. Honestly, this is not attributable to one person, it's the group as a whole that got people in seats. I would think it would come down to Affleck, Aniston and Barrymore, though, as the most influential. Kevin Connolly, I mean geez, can the guy be any more of a wuss? He's such a boy, even though he's in his 30s, I think. It'd be nice to recognize him as more of a man. (Cheap shot, I know, but deserved.) I think Aniston is indeed the hottest actress on the list with Drew having the history in this genre. A possible stripping from Johannson doesn't hurt either, though I suspect we will get jipped on the T and A.

Scott Lumley: The cast does look strong, but the critical component has to be Aniston. People still have warm fuzzy memories of her as Rachel on Friends and she lives on the cover of every tabloid due to the Brangelina nonsense that a huge chunk of America seems to be obsessed with. When you're that much in the public eye, and it's not for being arrested, that's going to have an impact on your box office results.

Sean Collier: Barrymore is a close second, but it's Aniston. She seemed to absorb the star power of the other five Friends almost completely.




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Tim Briody: And how come the one person in the entire cast that I had never heard of before got to host Saturday Night Live?

Jason Lee: I'd say it's due to Barrymore. I barely saw any of Aniston in the commercials that I caught on TV. Barrymore has the ending "gag" in the film's first trailer and is involved in one of the better lines on the commercials that I saw ("MySpace is the new booty call.").

Reagen Sulewski: I think both Barrymore and Aniston bring different, crucial things to this cast. Barrymore is the bubbly, comedic presence, and Aniston is the "movie star" who makes it an event.

Jamie Ruccio: I think if anything it was the ensemble nature of the cast that may have been the draw as well as the subject matter. I think you can throw out the individual box office histories of each actor as being complete non-factors. I think it's much greater than the sum of its parts.


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