Where Are The Hollywood Stars?

Hi-tech films prove to be box-office draws a couple of months ago, film industry analysts scanning the list of summer movies were asking, "Where are the stars?" With the season about two-thirds over, a better question is, "Who needs them?"

With Hollywood on a pace to break its 1999 summer box-office record, the 11 most popular movies are virtually starless.

"This has been a high-concept summer, driven by the concepts themselves," says Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood-based Exhibitor Relations. "There's no Mel Gibson, no Tom Hanks, no Bruce Willis, no Harrison Ford. It's a starless summer, but it hardly matters."

Anne Thompson, who follows Hollywood trends as West Coast editor of Premiere magazine, calls it "a summer of brands and events."

"You don't need stars when you're marketing franchises like 'Jurassic Park.' 'Planet of the Apes' and 'The Mummy'" she says. "Even 'Pearl Harbor' is a brand, when you consider how much the name means."

And in a week or so, "Planet of the Apes" - which ranked 11th after its $68.5 million opening weekend - will join "Shrek," "The Mummy Returns," "Pearl Harbor," "The Fast & the Furious" and others in the $100 million-plus club.

Who are the stars of summer? Mike Myers does the voice of Shrek, but people don't go to animated movies for a voice performance.

Brendan Fraser has been in both Mummy movies but a better indication of his star wattage can be found in the paltry $5.4 million gross of his last film, "Monkeybone".

Did Ben Affleck pull in the crowd for "Pearl Harbor"? Please. Had you even heard of Vin Diesel, the lead actor in "The Fast & the Furious"? Angelina Jolie has certainly become a bankable star with "Lara Croft," but before that, she seemed destined for box office stardom only in the supermarket tabloids.

To its credit, "Jurassic Park III" did not even pretend to have stars.

The real attractions this summer are computer-generated images, and more than just the software-fueled animation of "Shrek" - "The Mummy Returns," "Pearl Harbor" and "Jurassic Park III" owe their existence to CGI. Without it, there would be no mummies, no Pearl Harbor invasion, no dinosaurs.

Dergarabedian sees the starless summer as another indication of Hollywood's marketing savvy.

If the box office stays on track for the next five weeks, he says theaters will take in more than $3 billion. So why spend $20 million on a big-name star when that will buy you another 20 minutes of action?

"The summer is more about explosions and special effects than acting," Dergarabedian says. "These (hit) movies have done well on sheer marketing and word-of-mouth. Look at how much awareness there was for 'Planet of the Apes'. People are going to go see that movie regardless of who's in it."

Hollywood knows kids and young adults fill theaters during the summer, and targets accordingly. Still, the dearth of big names is unprecedented.

During the record-setting summer of 1999, the top 10 money-makers included films starring Bruce Willis (The Sixth Sense), Mike Myers (Austin Powers:The Spy Who Shagged Me), Adam Sandler (Big Daddy), Julia Roberts (Notting Hill and Runaway Bride) and Will Smith (Wild, Wild West).