Movie star
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Jump to: navigation, search
For other uses, including various songs titled "Movie Star", see Movie star (disambiguation).
Movie star Tobey Maguire greets fans at the Spider-Man 3 premiere in Queens
A movie star (cinema star or film star) is a celebrity who is well-known, or famous, for his or her starring, or leading, roles in motion pictures. The term may also apply to an actor or actress who is recognized as a marketable commodity and whose name is used to promote a film in trailers and posters. The most widely-known, prominent or successful actors are sometimes called "superstars" by writers and journalists.
Contents[hide]
1 Origin
2 Advantages and drawbacks
3 Decline
4 Treatment outside the West
4.1 India
4.2 China
5 See also
6 References
//
[edit] Origin
Lillian Gish was one of the first female movie stars, working from 1912 to 1987
In the early days of silent movies the names of the actors and actresses appearing in movies were not publicized or credited as they are now. Some of these performers had to help build the sets, clean up and other chores around the film studio. As the movie-going public became more interested in the performers who attracted their attention, however, the curiosity to know more about them made the movie studios and producers rethink their policy. As the demand increased, they began publicizing the names of their leading women and men, and bill them in the credits of their movies, such as Florence Lawrence, referred to as "the first movie star," who was previously known only as the "Biograph Girl" because she worked for Biograph Studios, and Mary Pickford, who was previously known as "Little Mary." By 1909, the silent film companies began promoting "picture personalities" by releasing stories about these actors to fan magazines and newspapers, as part of a strategy to build “brand loyalty” for their company’s actors and films. By the 1920s, Hollywood film company promoters had developed a “massive industrial enterprise” that “... peddled a new intangible—fame.”[1]
Hollywood “image makers” and promotional agents planted rumours, selectively released real or fictitious biographical information to the press, and used other "gimmicks" to create personas for actors. Then they “...worked [to] reinforce that persona [and] manage the publicity.” Publicists thus "created" the "enduring images" and public perceptions of screen legends such as Rock Hudson,Marilyn Monroe,and Grace Kelley. The development of this “star system” made “fame... something that could be fabricated purposely, by the masters of the new ‘machinery of glory.’”[1] However, regardless of how “... strenuously the star and their media handlers and press agents may ... try to "monitor" and "shape" it, the media and the public always play a substantial part in the image-making process.”[1]According to Madow, “fame is a "relational" phenomenon, something that is conferred by others. A person can, within the limits of his natural talents, make himself strong or swift or learned. But he cannot, in this same sense, make himself famous, any more than he can make himself loved.”
Madow goes on to point out that “fame is often conferred or withheld, just as love is, for reasons and on grounds other than "merit." According to Sofia Johansson the "canonical texts on stardom" include articles by Boorstin (1971), Alberoni (1972) and Dyer (1979) that examined the "representations of stars and on aspects of the Hollywood star system." Johansson notes that "more recent analyses within media and cultural studies (e.g. Gamson 1994; Marshall 1997; Giles 2000; Turner, Marshall and Bonner 2000; Rojek 2001; Turner 2004) have instead dealt with the idea of a pervasive, contemporary, ‘celebrity culture’." In the analysis of the 'celebrity culture,' "fame and its constituencies are conceived of as a broader social process, connected to widespread economic, political, technological and cultural developments."[2]
In the 1980s and 90s, entertainment companies began using stars for a range of publicity tactics including press releases, movie "junkets, and community activities. These promotional efforts are targeted and designed using market research, "to increase the predictability of success of their media ventures.” In some cases, publicity agents may create “provocative advertisements” or make an outrageous public statement to “trigger public controversy and thereby generate "free" news coverage.”[1] Movie studios employed performers under long-term contracts. They developed a star system as a means of promoting and selling their movies. "Star vehicles" were filmed to display the particular talents and appeal of the most popular movie stars of the studio.
[edit] Advantages and drawbacks
Traditionally, those who achieve "star" status in the movie industry are given special treatment, perks, and high salaries. Other than those movie stars who began forming their own production companies to make more money and those who received a percentage of the profits to star in a movie, such as Lana Turner for Imitation of Life (1959), reaping millions of dollars,[citation needed] the first movie star to be paid a fee of $1,000,000 to star in a movie was Elizabeth Taylor for Cleopatra (1963). For his appearance in the 1978 movie Superman, movie star Marlon Brando received almost $4,000,000 for eight minutes of screen time as Superman's father, Jor-El. The highest paid Hollywood actress is Cameron Diaz, who received $50,000,000 for her role in What Happens in Vegas. The highest flat fee paid to any actor was $30,000,000 to Mel Gibson for reprising his role in Lethal Weapon 4.
Usually, a star receives the most earnings when they agree to forgo part of their usual payment in exchange for a certain percentage of the gross takings of a particularly successful film), because in this fashion they are sharing the potential risks and rewards with the production company and other financial backers.[citation needed] An example of this concession is the $185 million paycheck Keanu Reeves received for his participation in the Matrix sequels (The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions). Reeves accepted an upfront salary of $20 million for the project, plus an additional 15% of the movies' gross revenue. Furthermore, a movie star's popularity can allow for more artistic accommodation such as personal projects or supporting collaborators or friends that otherwise would not have support from the studios.
Movie stars also receive what is known as "celebrity swag" when attending award ceremonies, winning an award and presenting awards. This "swag" comes in the form of gift bags or baskets containing items worth thousands of dollars, ranging from designer sunglasses and expensive perfume to high-end electronics. Companies provide the movie stars with these gifts in the hopes they will receive free publicity for their products, either from the actor wearing or using the gift in public, or thanking the company in an interview.[citation needed]
However, a movie star's personal privacy is often substantially reduced. Stars can rarely appear in public for long without being surrounded and often harassed by strangers and aggressive tabloid photographers that are nicknamed paparazzi. While some film stars only experience this type of harassment during film awards, the most popular actors, such as Brad Pitt are photographed every week as they go about their private lives, in order to feed the huge public demand for tabloid coverage of the star's private lives. Movie stars often are required by movie producers to appear on TV, in newspapers, in magazines, to publicize their movies. Some stars stipulate they will not talk about their private lives (e.g., their relationships or family), but only about acting and movies, particularly the projects they are working on.[citation needed]
[edit] Decline
Some critics argue that few Hollywood movie stars of the 2000s have been able to match the universal appeal of "classic" movie stars (e.g. Charlie Chaplin, Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, Steve McQueen, Jack Nicholson, Claudette Colbert, Cary Grant).[citation needed] To explain this phenomenon, some point to the growing trend of "niche marketing" Hollywood movies, producing stars with strong, but limited appeal to specific demographics.[citation needed] Others point to the unappealing public conduct of modern stars, or to Hollywood's tendency to hire career actors who possess little life experience.[citation needed]
[edit] Treatment outside the West
Movie stars in other regions too have their own star value. For instance, in Asian film industries, many movies often run on the weight of the star's crowd pulling power more than any other intrinsic aspect of film making.
[edit] India
The Indian film industry has its own set of rules in this aspect and there are often superstars in this region, who often command premium pay commensurate with their box office appeal. Among them, Aamir Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Chiranjeevi, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth, Salman Khan, Kamal Hassan, Mohanlal, Mammootty and Aishwarya Rai, are arguably the most popular movie stars in Southern Asia.
[edit] China
Chinese movie stars well-known in the West include Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Chow Yun-Fat, Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi, and the late Bruce Lee, who are also some of the most popular movie stars in Eastern Asia. A few movie stars from Hong Kong have global audiences, such as Jackie Chan, while others have a limited overseas audience but a more devoted following, such as Stephen Chow,[citation needed] though he has become more known in the West after Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle.
[edit] See also
Celebrity
Character actor
Charisma
Hollywood
Leading Man
Leading lady
List of movie actors
List of movie actresses
Matinée idol
Film portal
Sex symbol
Superstar
Typecasting
Voice actor
[edit] References
^ a b c d http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:1CP1noeuL2wJ:www.adidem.org/articles/MF1.html+movie+star+salary+economic+rationale&hl=en&gl=ca&ct=clnk&cd=45
^ Editorial by Sofia Johansson from the Communication and Media Research Institute of the University of Westminster. Available at: http://www.wmin.ac.uk/mad/pdf/Sofia.pdf
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movie_star"
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For other uses, including various songs titled "Movie Star", see Movie star (disambiguation).
Movie star Tobey Maguire greets fans at the Spider-Man 3 premiere in Queens
A movie star (cinema star or film star) is a celebrity who is well-known, or famous, for his or her starring, or leading, roles in motion pictures. The term may also apply to an actor or actress who is recognized as a marketable commodity and whose name is used to promote a film in trailers and posters. The most widely-known, prominent or successful actors are sometimes called "superstars" by writers and journalists.
Contents[hide]
1 Origin
2 Advantages and drawbacks
3 Decline
4 Treatment outside the West
4.1 India
4.2 China
5 See also
6 References
//
[edit] Origin
Lillian Gish was one of the first female movie stars, working from 1912 to 1987
In the early days of silent movies the names of the actors and actresses appearing in movies were not publicized or credited as they are now. Some of these performers had to help build the sets, clean up and other chores around the film studio. As the movie-going public became more interested in the performers who attracted their attention, however, the curiosity to know more about them made the movie studios and producers rethink their policy. As the demand increased, they began publicizing the names of their leading women and men, and bill them in the credits of their movies, such as Florence Lawrence, referred to as "the first movie star," who was previously known only as the "Biograph Girl" because she worked for Biograph Studios, and Mary Pickford, who was previously known as "Little Mary." By 1909, the silent film companies began promoting "picture personalities" by releasing stories about these actors to fan magazines and newspapers, as part of a strategy to build “brand loyalty” for their company’s actors and films. By the 1920s, Hollywood film company promoters had developed a “massive industrial enterprise” that “... peddled a new intangible—fame.”[1]
Hollywood “image makers” and promotional agents planted rumours, selectively released real or fictitious biographical information to the press, and used other "gimmicks" to create personas for actors. Then they “...worked [to] reinforce that persona [and] manage the publicity.” Publicists thus "created" the "enduring images" and public perceptions of screen legends such as Rock Hudson,Marilyn Monroe,and Grace Kelley. The development of this “star system” made “fame... something that could be fabricated purposely, by the masters of the new ‘machinery of glory.’”[1] However, regardless of how “... strenuously the star and their media handlers and press agents may ... try to "monitor" and "shape" it, the media and the public always play a substantial part in the image-making process.”[1]According to Madow, “fame is a "relational" phenomenon, something that is conferred by others. A person can, within the limits of his natural talents, make himself strong or swift or learned. But he cannot, in this same sense, make himself famous, any more than he can make himself loved.”
Madow goes on to point out that “fame is often conferred or withheld, just as love is, for reasons and on grounds other than "merit." According to Sofia Johansson the "canonical texts on stardom" include articles by Boorstin (1971), Alberoni (1972) and Dyer (1979) that examined the "representations of stars and on aspects of the Hollywood star system." Johansson notes that "more recent analyses within media and cultural studies (e.g. Gamson 1994; Marshall 1997; Giles 2000; Turner, Marshall and Bonner 2000; Rojek 2001; Turner 2004) have instead dealt with the idea of a pervasive, contemporary, ‘celebrity culture’." In the analysis of the 'celebrity culture,' "fame and its constituencies are conceived of as a broader social process, connected to widespread economic, political, technological and cultural developments."[2]
In the 1980s and 90s, entertainment companies began using stars for a range of publicity tactics including press releases, movie "junkets, and community activities. These promotional efforts are targeted and designed using market research, "to increase the predictability of success of their media ventures.” In some cases, publicity agents may create “provocative advertisements” or make an outrageous public statement to “trigger public controversy and thereby generate "free" news coverage.”[1] Movie studios employed performers under long-term contracts. They developed a star system as a means of promoting and selling their movies. "Star vehicles" were filmed to display the particular talents and appeal of the most popular movie stars of the studio.
[edit] Advantages and drawbacks
Traditionally, those who achieve "star" status in the movie industry are given special treatment, perks, and high salaries. Other than those movie stars who began forming their own production companies to make more money and those who received a percentage of the profits to star in a movie, such as Lana Turner for Imitation of Life (1959), reaping millions of dollars,[citation needed] the first movie star to be paid a fee of $1,000,000 to star in a movie was Elizabeth Taylor for Cleopatra (1963). For his appearance in the 1978 movie Superman, movie star Marlon Brando received almost $4,000,000 for eight minutes of screen time as Superman's father, Jor-El. The highest paid Hollywood actress is Cameron Diaz, who received $50,000,000 for her role in What Happens in Vegas. The highest flat fee paid to any actor was $30,000,000 to Mel Gibson for reprising his role in Lethal Weapon 4.
Usually, a star receives the most earnings when they agree to forgo part of their usual payment in exchange for a certain percentage of the gross takings of a particularly successful film), because in this fashion they are sharing the potential risks and rewards with the production company and other financial backers.[citation needed] An example of this concession is the $185 million paycheck Keanu Reeves received for his participation in the Matrix sequels (The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions). Reeves accepted an upfront salary of $20 million for the project, plus an additional 15% of the movies' gross revenue. Furthermore, a movie star's popularity can allow for more artistic accommodation such as personal projects or supporting collaborators or friends that otherwise would not have support from the studios.
Movie stars also receive what is known as "celebrity swag" when attending award ceremonies, winning an award and presenting awards. This "swag" comes in the form of gift bags or baskets containing items worth thousands of dollars, ranging from designer sunglasses and expensive perfume to high-end electronics. Companies provide the movie stars with these gifts in the hopes they will receive free publicity for their products, either from the actor wearing or using the gift in public, or thanking the company in an interview.[citation needed]
However, a movie star's personal privacy is often substantially reduced. Stars can rarely appear in public for long without being surrounded and often harassed by strangers and aggressive tabloid photographers that are nicknamed paparazzi. While some film stars only experience this type of harassment during film awards, the most popular actors, such as Brad Pitt are photographed every week as they go about their private lives, in order to feed the huge public demand for tabloid coverage of the star's private lives. Movie stars often are required by movie producers to appear on TV, in newspapers, in magazines, to publicize their movies. Some stars stipulate they will not talk about their private lives (e.g., their relationships or family), but only about acting and movies, particularly the projects they are working on.[citation needed]
[edit] Decline
Some critics argue that few Hollywood movie stars of the 2000s have been able to match the universal appeal of "classic" movie stars (e.g. Charlie Chaplin, Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, Steve McQueen, Jack Nicholson, Claudette Colbert, Cary Grant).[citation needed] To explain this phenomenon, some point to the growing trend of "niche marketing" Hollywood movies, producing stars with strong, but limited appeal to specific demographics.[citation needed] Others point to the unappealing public conduct of modern stars, or to Hollywood's tendency to hire career actors who possess little life experience.[citation needed]
[edit] Treatment outside the West
Movie stars in other regions too have their own star value. For instance, in Asian film industries, many movies often run on the weight of the star's crowd pulling power more than any other intrinsic aspect of film making.
[edit] India
The Indian film industry has its own set of rules in this aspect and there are often superstars in this region, who often command premium pay commensurate with their box office appeal. Among them, Aamir Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Chiranjeevi, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth, Salman Khan, Kamal Hassan, Mohanlal, Mammootty and Aishwarya Rai, are arguably the most popular movie stars in Southern Asia.
[edit] China
Chinese movie stars well-known in the West include Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Chow Yun-Fat, Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi, and the late Bruce Lee, who are also some of the most popular movie stars in Eastern Asia. A few movie stars from Hong Kong have global audiences, such as Jackie Chan, while others have a limited overseas audience but a more devoted following, such as Stephen Chow,[citation needed] though he has become more known in the West after Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle.
[edit] See also
Celebrity
Character actor
Charisma
Hollywood
Leading Man
Leading lady
List of movie actors
List of movie actresses
Matinée idol
Film portal
Sex symbol
Superstar
Typecasting
Voice actor
[edit] References
^ a b c d http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:1CP1noeuL2wJ:www.adidem.org/articles/MF1.html+movie+star+salary+economic+rationale&hl=en&gl=ca&ct=clnk&cd=45
^ Editorial by Sofia Johansson from the Communication and Media Research Institute of the University of Westminster. Available at: http://www.wmin.ac.uk/mad/pdf/Sofia.pdf
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movie_star"
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