The Best Movie Actor In Hollywood!

Chapter 293

"A brief foray into ancient times. The film's costuming seems intentionally designed to showcase the muscular physiques of its athletic male actors, while the female stars are clad in corseted gowns that look all too easy to remove. Clearly, the primary concern for director Wolfgang Petersen and star Brad Pitt was to avoid looking ridiculous."

Just as Helen had predicted, the buzz around Troy faded quickly after its release. While not as disastrously bad as Van Helsing, it was only marginally better.

Its $46 million domestic opening weekend dashed Warner Bros.' hopes of creating an epic masterpiece on par with The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The two films kicking off the summer season weren't outright flops, but both fell short of the high expectations set by the industry and the public.

Van Helsing plummeted to $20 million in its second weekend, while Troy was projected to earn around $130 million domestically in total.

Over the following week, the box office numbers for both films steadily aligned with those predictions.

While a domestic gross of over $100 million would be an impressive feat for an average movie, it wasn't even a passing grade for these two films, considering their massive production budgets.

Several websites, led by TMZ, along with numerous traditional media outlets, began to argue that Brad Pitt's box office draw was no longer in line with his A-list status.

"Looking at Brad Pitt's filmography, he hasn't had a hit where he was the sole lead since Seven in 1995. The highest-grossing film he starred in was Ocean's Eleven, but that was an ensemble piece where he was just one of several leads."

Brad Pitt's box-office reputation was in dire straits, but the truth was more nuanced; he had starred in very few films that were considered true financial disasters."Brad Pitt's mediocre box-office draw is a major handicap for Troy. As the lead, he bears the ultimate responsibility for the film's poor quality and negative reception."

By mid-May, as the audition for Mr. & Mrs. Smith approached, the decline in Troy's box office performance was apparent to everyone.

Of course, Van Helsing's box office performance was even more dismal than Troy's.

Many in the media pointed the finger at Orlando Bloom, whose career might have been seriously damaged were it not for the fame and credibility he'd earned from The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

But even so, he was hit hard.

Fortunately, Ridley Scott and the production team for Kingdom of Heaven didn't drop him and were still honoring their contract.

Matthew arranged to meet Orlando for a drink at the Viper Room, and they also agreed to take a trip together sometime when their schedules cleared up.

Matthew then immersed himself in firearms training and studying the script, leaving all other matters to Helen, whose success was now inextricably linked with his own.

In a cafe on the ground floor of the Fox building in Century City, Helen waited for Akiva Goldsman.

"Hello, Helen." Goldsman slid into the seat across from her. "This is about the audition, isn't it?"

There was no point in denying it. "Yes," Helen admitted. "My number one client, Matthew Horner, has an audition for the lead role, and he's up against some heavy competition in Brad Pitt."

She added, with a hint of playfulness, "I've known you for over a decade. Surely that earns me some special consideration?"

"Matthew is good," Goldsman conceded, clearly impressed. "He's starred in several successful films these past two years—even that zombie movie made nearly a hundred million domestically. But in terms of fame and influence, he's still not on Brad Pitt's level."

He folded his arms on the table. "Helen, with a hundred-million-dollar production budget, this is the biggest project I've ever backed as a producer. I don't need to tell you the kind of pressure I'm under. If this one fails, I'll never get a shot at another top-tier project again."

Helen nodded as he spoke; she knew Goldsman was telling the truth.

Goldsman leveled his gaze at her. "Let's be clear. The only real contenders for this role are Matthew Horner and Brad Pitt. Everyone else who got an invitation was just a favor I couldn't refuse. If you want me to choose Matthew, you'll have to give me a damn good reason."

"Matthew is positioned as an action star," Helen began, having prepared her argument long ago. "From his breakout role in Band of Brothers to his supporting parts in The Mummy Returns and Black Hawk Down, his career has been built on action. And the films that made him a true leading man—The Scorpion King, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Dawn of the Dead—are all solid action hits."

Goldsman remained silent, his eyes fixed on Helen.

Helen pressed on. "Matthew's last three leading roles were all box office hits. The Scorpion King successfully continued The Mummy franchise. His pairing with Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean was hailed as the best on-screen duo in years. And as the sole lead in Dawn of the Dead, he proved his undeniable audience appeal."

Before Goldsman could interject, Helen added, "Brad Pitt, on the other hand, has had very few box office hits in recent years. In fact, let's not even talk about the last three years—it would be completely unfair to Brad Pitt to compare his box office record with Matthew's during that time!"

Goldsman almost laughed. He realized that Helen was right: if you only compared their box office results from the last three years, Matthew's record utterly crushed Brad Pitt's.

But Helen wasn't finished. "Let's go back to around the year 2000. Fight Club in 1999 cost sixty-three million and only made thirty-seven million domestically—a disaster that, as you'll recall, cost a Fox executive his job. Meet Joe Black: ninety million budget, forty-four million domestic. The Mexican: sixty million budget, sixty-six million domestic. Spy Game: a hundred and fifteen million budget, only sixty-two point three million domestic."

Her voice rose slightly. "There are only two films you could call genuine box-office successes: Snatch and Ocean's Eleven. But Jason Statham was the lead in the first, and George Clooney in the second, and both were ensemble films!"

"And now look at Troy's current run. Brad Pitt's poor performance is being criticized by the press and fans alike. That epic is under enormous pressure and is on track to lose money unless it has some kind of miraculous explosion at the international box office."

Helen drove her point home. "None of Brad Pitt's past leading roles prove he can carry a film financially. He isn't suited for action—that fight between Achilles and Hector became a laughingstock."

As she spoke, Helen pulled a file from her bag and slid it across the table to Goldsman. He glanced down at it; the document laid out the exact figures she had just cited.

The figures were all publicly available, so Goldsman wasn't concerned that Helen might have fabricated them.

Of course, Helen wouldn't be foolish enough to falsify data that was so easily verifiable.

Goldsman picked up the file and scanned it. What had been a vague impression now became starkly, undeniably clear: since the year 2000, Brad Pitt had not carried a single film to box office success in North America as the sole leading man.

Seeing the shift in his expression, Helen added, "It's a strange phenomenon. The films starring Brad Pitt always seem to be a hit for him personally—they benefit his career—but the movie and the studio are the ones who end up out of luck."

She paused, letting her words hang in the air.

Goldsman's brow furrowed. It was the kind of thing you never noticed until someone pointed it out, but once you looked closely, the fact was quite shocking.

Could you really call someone a leading man if he couldn't carry the commercial films he starred in? The answer was self-evident.

Helen felt a private sense of relief. It was only after meticulous research that she herself had discovered this fact: the overwhelming majority of the popular Brad Pitt's films over the past seven or eight years had been box office failures.

If Troy had been a massive hit, all those past failures wouldn't have mattered. But the opposite had happened; Troy only served as further proof of Brad Pitt's waning box-office appeal.

Any other star with that record would have seen their career derail long ago. But somehow, despite all the failures, Brad Pitt had climbed to the very top.

No doubt, it was inextricably linked to his marriage.

"Helen, what you've presented..." Goldsman began, setting the folder aside. "I'll go back and think this over very carefully."

Without another word, he quickly left the cafe.

****

Meanwhile, Jennifer Aniston arrived home earlier than expected.