neither producers nor audiences need film stars anymore

To an extent I agree that film stars are not needed anymore. This is because the franchise industry is rising and star driven films are lacking, film stars are becoming less important and are diminishing.

In recent years, for example, 2014 had 15 franchises in the top 20 grossing films at the global box office. These included ‘Transformers: age of extinction’ and ‘The Hobbit’. These both are franchises and while having stars, the producers still depend on the income from the merchandise and toys and games. Producers prefer to make and produce franchises due to the fact that they rise above $1 billion whereas stand-alone films do not.

Audiences prefer franchises due to the fact that they are on different formats such as video games and are adapted from books, or are made into movie novels. The expectations of the audience are met from the franchises. This is due to the previous film, the producers know what the audience expect and they deliver it. Audiences also favour franchises from star driven films because of the characters in the film. Since franchises already have books, video games and toys the audience expect the same connection that they have with the character to filter through to the actor.  When reading a book, we create a whole film in our head and due to this we imagine the characters from the description of them. This means if the producer just wants a star to launch the film and if this star doesn’t look like what the audience have imagined or expected, it makes the film and the franchise a flop as the audience will not watch it.

However star driven films can still be successful such as ‘Interstellar’ and ‘Lucy’.

Christine Gledhill came up with the study of ‘star theory’ this theory supported that stars are relevant to the older generation as they grew up watching and also growing up as the same age as the stars. She also stated that our generation is driven away from stars because of the development of franchises. This happens because of video games and books. Video games allow the younger audience to become the character and connect in a way that cannot happen within star driven movies.

For example, if Arnold Schwarzenegger was to act in a star driven film, the older audiences would be interested as he appeals to the audience as the characters he plays embody, promote and reinforce our “ideological’ perspective such as a protagonist or a ‘good guy’. The older generation also most likely grew up watching him in films as children. So this results in the success of a stand-alone film featuring such an iconic star.