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George Clooney: Not a Movie Star

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It’s official. George Clooney‘s new movie, Leatherheads, is a flop. Despite being one of the major new releases this weekend, it opened second at the box office, well behind last week’s opener 21 and barely ahead of the kid’s movie, Nim’s Island.In Deadline Hollywood, Nikki Finke writes that Clooney’s latest, a

screwball comedy about the early days of football was seen in Hollywood as a referendum on Clooney’s popularity at the box office. Because right now he is a big movie star but not a big box office star, and his hefty paydays in big studio projects like this definitely depend on the latter. (To be fair, few movie stars nowadays are reliably performing at the box office…)

Wait a minute. I don’t get this. How can someone be a movie star without being a box office star? Isn’t a movie star supposed to be someone whose starring role in a movie sells tickets? And with the exception of Ocean’s Eleven and its sequels, his movies don’t do particularly well at the box office.

Have Hollywoods movers and shakers decided that he’s a movie star because he fits their image of what a movie star should be? Or is it that they like his politics? They want to have an outspoken liberal as the latest box office icon. But, they can’t make people buy tickets to his movies merely be deeming him a box office icon.

Heck, there’s even a book proclaiming George Clooney [to be] The Last Great Movie Star. While Clooney doesn’t do it for me, several friends (and family members) find him to be handsome, some strikingly so. And he has been pretty good in a number of movies (Out of Sight, O Brother Where Art Thou and Ocean’s Eleven), but unlike Cary Grant, the archetypal movie star if there ever was one, his mere presence in a movie doesn’t make the flic.

Usually, he’s just there with his smug mug, thinking he’s a star and that merely by showing up, reading his lines and smiling his (supposedly) winning smile, the movie will be a hit. But, the box office returns show us something quite different, only middling success and a cultural resonance now limited to Hollywood and other “bllue” enclaves across this great nation–and around the world.

UPDATE:  Over at Libertas, Dirty Harry, one of the few people who has seen the flick, weighs in calling it “pretty bad. It reeks of post-production meddling, a script obsessed over by people too close to it, and a lack of theme and focus. . . .“  Just read the whole thing.

Comments

  1. I keep wondering, how long can Hollywood get away with making flop after flop?  Especially all the "anti-war" (really anti-America / pro-the-other-side) pics that have flopped.  Hollywood clearly does not want to wake up and start making pics that people will go to.  How long can they get away with that?

  2. I intentionally stay away from Clooney films. Most have an underlying un American theme. But when I do catch a few on DVD they aren’t very good either. Syranna…come on. Actually GPW you mentioned Oceans Eleven as his last great boxoffice hit, but that cast was full of "stars". If it was Clooney and a cast of unknowns, even the Oceans films may have been busts. Conservatives should look on these anti American box office busts as a blessing. The money wasted on producing these works of "art" is millions they can’t donate to leftists like Obama, Chavez, Noreaga, etc.

  3. All stars have flops.  They always did.  A string of flops is what makes a star drop off the A-list.

    BTW, Clooney is still hot and still a star.  Do you dislike his acting or just his politics?

  4. Check out this list of George Clooney films. You tell me how many "classics " there are. And how many stellar performances there are. I count 29 films. Other than Batman and Robin, I didn’t like any of them. Box office successes? Not sure there are any here save the Oceans movies. But yeah I start with a dislike of Clooney because of his politics. He hates the country that has made him a rich man. And I don’t have to contribute to that.
    http://www.gclooney.com/filmography.html

  6. I saw “Leatherheads” today, and I thought it was quite entertaining.
    Clooney did a good job, and the movie ended in an “up” manner.
    Also, his good looks DON’t HURT!

  7. "[T]hey can’t make people buy tickets to his movies merely be deeming him a box office icon."
    Isn’t that the truth! Leatherheads looks like a film I’d enjoy seeing, but I won’t go and see it because Clooney’s the star.

    I don’t like Clooney’s politics; I also didn’t like the arrogant way he handled questions about 9-11 charity fundraising and celebrity responsibility.

    He’s a smug, ‘I’m glad I’m better than everybody else’ jerk.

  8. ILC, youre exactly right, Hollywood doesn’t want to make the movies that people will go to — Hollywood wants to push their political agenda and make movies about serial killers, heroin addicts, sex, drugs, anti-Americanism and all the other dark, depressing, banal counter-culture crap that simple minds think defines "art". And the answer to your question is, they will continue to make and push it as long as they can still make an occasional blockbuster to pay the bills and as long as actors are simple-minded.

  9. “Charlton Heston announced again today that he is suffering from Alzheimer’s.”  -George Clooney, 2003

    His latest film flops the same weekend Heston dies. There is some justice there.

    I actually do like his acting somewhat. I loved O Brother, but haven’t liked any of his movies since.

    BTW, I noticed Leatherheads wasn’t available on the internet ahead of the release as a lot of movies usually are. I don’t know if that’s an indication of how well people liked the movie or not.

  10. Has Hollywood become irrelevant?
    With movies from around the world available from the internet to amazon, Hollywood just doesn’t have the hold on movie viewing it once did. I haven’t been in a movie theatre in years. rely on my friends and word of mout to decide what movies I watch, not Hollywood ad campains or so called stars.

  11. #10
    I haven’t either. The last movie I saw was Transformers. We have a drive-in, BTW.
    The Leatherheads commercial looks pretty cool, but I get the sense that it’s one of those movies where the trailer contains all the good parts.

  12. The man mocked Charlton Heston’s (RIP) Alzheimer’s disease five years ago.
    George is a talentless, classless, immature oaf who got where he is today because of nepotism. Pre-ER, he was bounced from sitcom to sitcom where he was fired (The Facts of Life, Roseanne) or the show was cancelled (too many to name).
    He sure got really political after that Gong Show movie of his bombed.

  13. Every single time I’ve ever seen Clooney in something, I’ve been impressed by his zero screen presence and his lack of gravitas.  He’s supposed to be attractive, apparently, but I just don’t see it.

    I remember once hearing someone call Clooney "a smiling, head-bobbing twit of an actor."  Your description of him here as "Usually, he’s just there with his smug mug, thinking he’s a star and that merely by showing up, reading his lines and smiling his (supposedly) winning smile, the movie will be a hit" is also pretty accurate.

  14. When Clooney does do interviews he is always smirking and giving sarcastic supposedly cute answers to questions. Like he is so smug and knows more than the people around him.

  17. 16: If you have such a problem with this, then I suggest you contact the owners of this site and turn it into a password protected site so you don’t have the read the comments of those you don’t agree with and you can all enjoy your own backslapping.

  18. I thought Clooney was excellent in Stagecoach, Fargo, Raging Bull, Batman Returns, Schindler’s List, and Dirty Dancing. He is a well rounded actor of convincing nuance. I really liked his stamina and sensitivity in Happy Feet.

  19. @16: Namecalling aside, are you really trying to say that GDub doesn’t do this? It’s one of his most discussed attributes (whether you think it communicates folksy charm or blinding arrogance depends on which way you lean), but I’ve never heard anybody actually try to claim that he doesn’t do the smirk.

  20. Smirk may be one thing, but I said Clooney smirked was sarcastic and acted like he knew more than everyone around him. Compare that to the leader of the free world….Mr Bush. W may smirk, I’ve never heard him be sarcastic, and you know what, he probably is more informed than anyone living. Whether you like it or not he gets daily briefings that would probably curl our hair.