Forbes Magazine loves lists…and I don't think they always care if they mean anything. Someone needs to do a list of the Top Ten Stupid Lists appearing in Forbes Magazine.
Near the top would be their new list of Hollywood's Most Overpaid Movie Stars. Numero Uno, they say, is Nicole Kidman. For every dollar she was paid to appear in films last year, the films only earned one dollar. She's followed on the list by Jennifer Garner, Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.
This might be a fair way to measure "overpaid" if, for example, Nicole Kidman was supposed to be the only reason for her movies' success or failure. Is it possible she did her job to perfection but customers stayed away because the director did a bad job? Or the writer's script sucked? Or the studio bungled the advertising and marketing? A major variable in how much a film grosses is its competition…what else is released at the same time. Ms. Kidman has no control over any of that.
It might make sense to gauge a star's financial value by looking at what kind of advance sale the film received. Did theaters rush to book it? Did foreign distributors bid for it? That's where the strength of a star's name has some serious impact. But if the movie turns out lousy and people stay away in droves, that's usually not the star's fault.
Whatever a star brings to a film is fairly consistent but their grosses sure aren't. Samuel L. Jackson, who I'm guessing is paid a nice piece of change per movie, has starred in some pretty lucrative ones. Jurassic Park brought in $920 million and Pulp Fiction bagged $212 million. But in-between those films, Jackson appeared in Loaded Weapon 1 ($27 million), Amos & Andrew ($9 million and change) and Menace II Society ($27 million). And after Pulp Fiction, he had Losing Isaiah, which brought in a measly $7 million. He was probably just as good an actor in each of these films and maybe even just as popular. His fans wanted to see him in some of these films and not in others.
Is Samuel L. Jackson overpaid? It depends what you're making. If it's Pulp Fiction, probably not. If it's Amos & Andrew, maybe you're just making a movie that not many people want to see, even with Samuel L. Jackson in it. Put him or Nicole Kidman in the right movie and whatever you pay them will seem like a bargain.