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list star who made a career balancing blockbusters like Armageddon with indie releases like
Moonrise Kingdom, stumbled this
year. Willis’ fifth Die Hard film,
A Good Day to Die Hard, grossed
just $24 million during its opening salvo; overall, the film has
earned only $66 million in North
America thus far, about half of
what the last Die Hard, Live Free
or Die Hard, grabbed from ticket
buyers in 2007. (Willis still has
muscles overseas; A Good Day to
Die Hard, which takes place in
Russia, has earned $219 million in
foreign ticket sales.)
“Time was that these guys were
box office gold regardless of the
movie, but today’s entertainment
landscape is exponentially more
competitive than it was 25 years
ago when these guys were in their
heyday,” Hollywood.com box office
expert Paul Dergarabedian told
HuffPost Entertainment. “The
movies they star in (and their
concepts) have to be spot on to
grab contemporary audiences.”
Which doesn’t necessarily mean
that the movies have to be good,
just marketed in a way that makes
audiences want to show up. Take
Olympus Has Fallen, with former
box office pariah Gerard Butler
BEHIND
THE SCENES
HUFFINGTON
05.12.13
Time was that these
guys were box office gold
regardless of the movie,
but today’s entertainment
landscape is exponentially
more competitive than it was
25 years ago when these guys
were in their heyday.”
in the leading role. Despite many
negative reviews and a star with
a conga line of flops over the last
five years, the film earned $30
million during its opening weekend — just $5 million less than
the openings of The Last Stand,
Bullet to the Head and A Good Die
To Die Hard combined.
“The marketing was terrific and
Stallone and
Schwarzenegger arrive at
the premiere
of The
Expendables
in 2010.