Well Kitsch probably was hurt by John Carter not being a runaway success, since he was the main lead and was all over the promotional material for the movie. It would have helped his career if Battleship was a hit, but I’m not sure if it flopping really hurts him. It seems to be more of an ensemble. Most of the news I heard leading up the movie was about Liam Neeson signing onto this ridiculous sounding movie, or about Rihanna’s first acting job, or about Alexander Skarsgard being in a uniform. And I haven’t seen the movie, but I don’t remember seeing Kitsch in any of the commercials, trailers, or posters. It was all just alien spaceship things and battleships. When I first saw the poster at the theater, I at first thought it was for another Transformers sequel.
Second, while both have been referred to as flops, I think Battleship actually actually has made some profit when you consider worldwide grosses. Maybe not as much as the producers would like, and maybe not enough to justify a sequel, but just because something flopped in the US doesn’t mean it’s a total flop.
Also, it depends on what you mean by surviving. It’s possible that now he’ll never be a big star. He probably won’t be competing with Chris Hemsworth and Michael Fassbender and others of that league for the big roles in the blockbusters. But he might still be able to get the supporting roles, or have main roles in smaller movies. Kitsch has another movie coming out this summer called Savages, which I don’t know much about but I think is some kind of indie crime movie. He could keep doing things like that and making money. It might not be the career that he dreamed of, but he could still have a career that would make many actors jealous.
Also, if I may give him a bit more credit, he’s very good playing a particular type of role: a charming but overconfident character who blindly and foolishly gets himself into situations where he’s in way over his head (and is often not aware of this until it’s too late). I’ve noticed this seems to be the case in many of his more notable films (e.g., Lilith, Bonnie and Clyde, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and The Parallax View).
Anyway, since we’re talking about Beatty and toxic flops, he hasn’t been in any movies since Town & County did its face-plant in 2001.
I think you have to sink an entire studio to get summary exile, like Michael Cimino.
Taylor Kitsch wasn’t the problem with John Carter; Disney got cold feet less than a week after release. This kind of movie makes money automatically in most foreign markets, given a chance. Don’t be surprised to see Kitsch turn up as a major TV star, setting is sights just a little lower a la Alec Baldwin or David Caruso. He’d be perfect for some kind of L&O/CSI-type show, wouldn’t he?
As has been said in this thread- it all depends. But yes, if it’s your First Big Role, then one real stinker (even if your role wasn;t) can pretty much kill your career.
Which is why Battleship opened overseas FIRST (and almost a month earlier), and, I think, made its costs back before it even opened in the US (but who can tell these things, knowing Hollywood accounting).
Good point. I’m not convinced John Carter will be in the red after cable and DVD sales are factored in next year, in the conventional sense. They just caught a whiff that promoting it would cost a lot more that putting it into the Disney Vault and letting the awesome moneymaking power of the Avengers do its thing.
Too bad; I’d love to see Dejah Thoris among the theme park Disney Princesses…
It will be interesting to see if Andrew Stanton ever directs another live action movie, after John Carter. I certainly don’t think he’ll be given such an enormous budget again, anyway.
Note the correlation between “Starring Ben Stiller” and “Produced by Ben Stiller” in his recent resume. The studios are willing to let you do a lot more when it is your money.
[QUOTE=The Other Jeffrey Lebowski]
Martin Brest, director of Beverly Hills Cop and Midnight Run, has not been heard from since directing Gigli.
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Ah, you beat me to it. That was also a rough period for Affleck. He was nominated for Golden Rasberry for Worst Actor (‘won’ two of those) in five consecutive films: Daredevil, Gigli, Paycheck, Surviving Christmas, and Jersey Girl. There was seeming desperation after Gigli. He had success playing douchebag characters in Dazed and Confused and Chasing Amy but that typecast role doesn’t work every time.
As for the opening post topic, the size of the flop matters most for the director but it’s more subjective for actors depending on character context and how well established his/her career is.
Heaven’s Gate was one of the worst flops ever, and it didn’t hurt Jeff Bridges (speaking of Lebowski) or Christopher Walken in the grand scheme if at all. Cimino’s reputation as director was rather crippled though.
There are exceptions. Dune (1984) was a horrible flop financially and critically, but director David Lynch was able to bounce back with more modestly budgeted films. Note: don’t provide a $45 million budget to an obscure avant-garde director. Also, director Kevin Smith’d career recovered from the total financial black hole of Mallrats which was only his 2nd feature film.
Godfather Part III wasn’t really a flop, but Sofia Coppola’s performance tanked her further potential for acting. She’s had success as a director since then, though.
