The Post-Movie-Star Era
A few months ago, I sat with three of the most popular actors of the past few decades — Robert Redford, Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise — who were promoting their new film, Lions for Lambs. I posed to them an indelicate question: Are movie stars obsolete? Consternation erupted as the three quickly and forcefully dismissed the idea. And why shouldn't they? They had nearly a century of movie history on their side.
一个月前，我有幸采访了三名纵横影坛几十年的超级巨星——Robert Redford, Meryl Streep和Tom Cruise——他们正在为新片子《狮入羊口》作宣传。我特意向他们提出了这样一个问题：电影明星是不是过时了？就跟炸开窝一样，三个人马上表明态度，反对这种观点。他们为什么不同意呢？他们占据这块地皮已经将近一个世纪了！
The notion of star quality, of the famous face and magnetic personality that get the mass audience into theaters, has been an article of film-industry faith ever since Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford became worldwide sensations in the infant medium back around 1914. Over the years, almost everything else about movies changed, but one tenet held firm: the name above the title sold tickets. That's why the top stars could earn $25 million a picture — because they were the surest guarantee of a return on investment.
明星脸和独特魅力的星派儿吸引了大批观众进入剧院，从1914年电影节幼年时期开始，Charlie Chaplin和Mary Pickford就已经在世界范围内推销电影工业了。这么些年来，关于电影的一切都改变了，但是有一条准则依然领导着影视界：演员表上的名字就是票房晴雨表。这就是为什么电影明星接一部片子就能拿到25,000,000美元的报酬——因为他们是投资得以回收的担保。
Except now they're not. Indeed, we may be in Hollywood's first poststar era. If you judge movie stardom by the actors who headline the biggest hits, then the top stars of 2007 include Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man 3), Shia LaBeouf (Transformers), Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) and Gerard Butler (300). Each of these films took in more than $200 million at the domestic box office, or more than three times as much as the political comedy Charlie Wilson's War, with a cast headed by Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. Among actresses in the year's releases, the big star was Ellen Page, whose low-budget Juno has made $138 million domestically. Doesn't she deserve an eight-figure contract for her next film? No, because even studio bosses know that, appealing as Page may have been, what drew crowds to Juno was story and attitude. Those are the lures of indie films, as surely as comic-book grandeur is the sine qua non for today's franchise blockbusters.
或者已经物是人非。的确如此，我们正在经历好莱坞的第一个非明星时代。你可以仔细观察那些票房暴涨的电影演员表，会发现2007电影票房大片主演Tobey Maguire（《蜘蛛侠3》）、Shia LaBeouf（《变形金刚》）、Daniel Radcliffe（《哈里波特和凤凰令》）、Gerard Butler（《斯巴达300勇士》）都名不见经传。上述每一部片子国内票房都超过200,000,000美元，三倍于Tom Hanks和Julia Roberts主演的政治喜剧《查理的战争》。查看今年报端的女明星们，超级星姐是Ellen Page，她主演了一部低成本片子《朱诺》，在国内赢得了138,000,000美元的票房。下一部电影，Ellen Page是不是会得到八倍的片酬呢？当然不，因为每个制片人都知道，Page吸引人之处在于《朱诺》的剧本和态度。这就是独立电影的精髓，正如卡通壮士在今天引爆票房炸弹一样。
Meanwhile, star vehicles keep tanking. One reason is salutary: being in a string of hits no longer matters much to many stars. They have a taste for the off-Hollywood project that wouldn't be made if they weren't in it and that can stretch their talents even as it challenges their fans. Bravo for all this pro bono work. Still, you have to ask why The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, with Brad Pitt as the outlaw hero and Oscar-nominated Casey Affleck as his nemesis, should cadge a mere $4 million domestically or why The Good German, a spy thriller starring Maguire, Cate Blanchett and George Clooney — "the last movie star" — should earn a pitiful $1.3 million.
与此同时，明星团体越发艰难。这里有一个显而易见的理由：保持电影票房已经不全依靠明星了。他们尝试开发好莱坞外围事业，如果不是他们这些业务也不会被开发，他们因此可以延展自己的能力也同时挑战了粉丝的耐心。致力于斯，即便是免费工作。当然，你还是会奇怪为什么《神枪手之死》里，即便是Brad Pitt饰演亡命英雄，奥斯卡提名Casey Affleck饰演其对手这样的大牌演出仅收回了可怜的4,000,000美元的国内票房，而《柏林迷宫》这部间谍惊悚片主演Maguire，Cate Blanchett和George Clooney——“最后的电影明星”——也只赚到了可怜兮兮的1,300,000美元。
Every trend needs an exception, and Hollywood still has a guy whose movies are sure-shot smashes: Will Smith. (Matt Damon and Adam Sandler are also reliable hitmakers if they stick to their respective action and farce genres.) And yes, it's always possible that we're at the dawn of a new star era — that LaBeouf and Page will be the Hanks and Roberts of the next decade.
每一种趋势里总有一个异数，好莱坞也存在一个铁杆硬汉：Will Smith。（Matt Damon和Adam Sandler也是如此，前提是他们坚持自己的个性演出和闹剧表演。）换句话来说，也有可能我们正处在一个新明星时代的黎明时期——LaBeouf和Page将会是下个时代的Hanks和Roberts。
But with Hollywood getting most of its revenue from no-name epics and nonstar animated features like Ratatouille and Alvin and the Chipmunks, the moguls will realize that big names no longer mean big grosses. Just ask Redford, Streep and Cruise (but not to their faces). The movie they starred in last fall earned only $15 million domestically. Which suggests that the industry should stop paying for the pricey lions and place their bets on a flock of fresh lambs.
但是让好莱坞赚上满钵金的是那些不具名的史诗电影和非明星的卡通片子，如《料理鼠王》和《艾尔文与花栗鼠》，高层认识到大明星并不等于大票房。可以笑话Redford, Streep和Cruise（不过别当他们面）。他们去年秋天公映的片子国内票房只有区区15,000,000美元。 这表明了，电影业界应该停止在这些昂贵的狮子上面投钱，而是把注下在那群新鲜的羔羊们身上。