Ishtar didn’t ruin Dustin Hoffman or Warren Beatty’s careers - but how will fledgling Taylor Kitsch survive John Carter and Battleship? Will John Carter’s Director still have a fine career in animation or will his live action flop doom his career?
More generally, as the title says, how bad does a flop have to be before it’s a career buster? Movies and Broadway would be the areas of discussion, I think. People seem to survive flop TV shows and then get cast in new ones quite regularly.
Three consecutive films with Kevin Costner as the lead, Wyatt Earp, Waterworld and The Postman, are good examples of significant box-office and critical flops. While Mr. Costner’s career wasn’t ruined, his impact as a big name was sullied and he has never really recovered from those debacles.
That depends on any number of variables though. For instance, Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty did “Ishtar” several decades after each had established themselves as two of the greatest, most bankable stars of their generations. Both of them had very distinguished careers behind them, and were two of the most lauded, respected actors of their generations. Taylor Kitsch on the other hand…is just one more pretty faced actor. Nice looking, backed by a good P.R. machine, but no genuine charisma or outstanding talent.
In retrospect you could say *Queen Kelly *ruined Gloria Swanson, *Lady in the Dark *ruined Ginger Rogers, and Mommie Dearest ruined Faye Dunaway: but it could be they were just getting older and weren’t lucky enough to get good follow-up roles.
I don’t think Jamie Kennedy was ever the lead in a movie after Son of the Mask.
I haven’t seen anything of Elizabeth Berkeley since she was blamed for the failure of ‘Showgirls’.
The Legend of the Lone Ranger ruined Klinton Spilsbury’s career. Arguably, it kept him from having a career, since according to imdb, it’s his only film appearance.
Believe it or not she’s had a pretty active career: Elizabeth Berkley - IMDb
I don’t think it’s one big flop but several in a row that will do you in. Take Michael Cera, a few years ago he was in new movie every other month because of arrested development, Juno and Superbad. But he followed that with Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist, Year One, Youth in Revolt and Scott Pilgrim vs the World and now all the awkward teenager movie roles are going to the Facebook movie guy.
I thought the failure of Ishtar was as much to do with the fact that it had such big stars in it and “ought to” have been better. I think it’s a bit different from being a potential star cast in terrible films who doesn’t get the paycheck because the films all sucked.
Films of the first type seem far less likely to be career-ruining. In a similar vein (though on a much different scale), Jack Black and Ben Stiller were very big names in comedy when they made the by-all-accounts-execrable Envy in 2004. It didn’t really stop them. Black was in King Kong a year later, and Nacho Libre after that, and Stiller had Dodgeball to cover the stink of Envy.
Ishtar did ruin Elaine May’s career – she never directed again. Hoffman and Beatty were not blamed for the flop, but May was. Coupled with the fact that she had already developed a reputation as a perfectionist who always went over budget, no producer would hire her.
In general terms, though, the answer is “It depends.” Steven Speilberg had a tremendous flop with 1941 and it looked like his career was over until his friend George Lucas hired him for Raiders of the Lost Ark. Robert Altman used to brag that none of his movies made any money except for MAS*H, but he was able to continue because producers figured he might just be due for another MAS*H. Michael Cimino was back directing five years after Heaven’s Gate. Usually, though a director has enough friends in Hollywood to eventually get work, or just drop down to directing TV episodes for awhile.
For actors, it’s even easier. Eddie Murphy has had a series of flops 2002, but seems to be able to get work consistently (though Shrek kept his career afloat). But an actor can ask for a lower salary to make himself more bankable. A director is dealing with millions of dollars no matter what the salary. Flops can hurt your acting career – especially if you’re blamed for them – but you can still find work. I doubt John Carter will hurt Taylor Kitsch’s career at all since it’s not a major disaster (it lost money, but not anywhere near the level of major flop), and he’s not blamed for the problem. OTOH, Andrew Stanton is in a bad position because the failure has been blamed on him, and, like May, he developed the reputation of being a perfectionist who ran up costs.
Geena Davis was finished at the box office after the bomb that was Cutthroat Island and the overlooked The Long Kiss Goodnight.
He’s box office poison. After Year One, they took his face off of the Scott Pilgrim poster.
Based on Nicolas Cage’s career, there doesn’t appear to be any fixed upper limit. I like him as an actor, but he has been in a lot of stinkers.
For instance, Jean Doumanian nearly got wrecked by her year at Saturday Night Live (she got the gig in 1981, after all the original players had left), but she was close friends with Woody Allen and went on to work on several of his projects. Then they had a falling out, and she hasn’t done much since.
If your last 3 movies were:
Lady In the Water (24% Rotten Tomatoes approval)
The Happening (18%)
Last Airbender (6%)
and you can still get Will Smith to star in your next film then I really don’t know what you have to do to ruin your career.
First, I think one of the main reasons Cage has been in a lot of crappy movies over the last decade is that he’s got money problems and needs the quick paychecks. Second, while not destroyed by a single big bomb, Nicholas Cage’s career and reputation actually has been steadily eroded by all the small bombs he’s been in. For example, last fall he and Nicole Kidman (another person whose career seem to be steadily eroding) starred in Trespass, a critically-roasted movie that, except for contractual clause requiring it to play at least one week in a theater, went straight-to-DVD. Only a few years ago, it would’ve been impossible for any film starring Cage and Kidman to be (for all due purposes) released directly to DVD. The fact that it can now indicates how low their stock has dipped.
Unfortunately, there is little correlation between critical acclaim and box office receipts. The Happening made a lot of money and The Last Airbender a useful profit.
Funny, “box office poison” was what they called Katharine Hepburn.
Did not Kidman get nominated for a Best Actress Oscar just 2 years ago?
