The purpose of this research is to examine the issue of star bankability as applied to two films in current release, Denise Calls Up and The Truth About Cats and Dogs. The plan of the research will be to set forth the advantages and disadvantages of casting bankable stars in general terms, and then to discuss the pattern of presentation in Denise Calls Up and The Truth About Cats and Dogs, to explore the degree to which casting bankable talent in these films might have affected their impact on the viewer.
Leaving aside the merits or demerits of a given script, commercial opportunity can be isolated as the principal reason that producers might wish to cast bankable stars in their films. The best evidence of that is the degree to which well-capitalized film projects are willing to pay millions of dollars to actors with high public appeal to appear in their films. When the commercial success of a film is attributed to its star, then the tendency appears to be to impute the success of future films to that star. Thus a star may be attached to a film by means of millions of dollars. The words of a headline for a story reporting a $12.5-million salary for the star of the film Stiptease sum up the marketing-oriented approach to film production: "Moore Money: Is Demi Moore Worth the Big Bucks? You Betcha" (Thompson 10). The positive aspect of this market-oriented option for film production is therefore the profit projection, anticipation, or expectation that the investment in star power will be paid off in film attendance figures. In theory, star power could account for the ability of a film to draw curious viewers in the early part of a release and so make back part of its production cost, even if the film fails to make a profit over the long term.
This market-centered formula for success does not always work, however, as the commercial failure of films featuring bankable stars has demonstrated. Meanwhile, what has been called cinema "c...