Showing posts with label actresses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label actresses. Show all posts

Sunday, January 5, 2025

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Sunday, June 8, 2014






Scott Bowles, USA TODAY
 11:48 a.m. EDT June 8, 2014

Despite boasting Angelina Jolie, a $180 million budget and one of the most famous names in fairy tale lore, Maleficent entered theaters May 30 amid a swirl of skepticism.

Would Jolie's four-year absence from the big screen hurt the movie's debut, analysts pondered. Would kids remember Maleficent from her 1969 roots in Sleeping Beauty? Most pressing, pundits asked: Would boys turn out for a modern-day fairy tale?

The boys did turn out — and they weren't that critical. The film was an overwhelming No. 1, earned $20 million above expectations and became the biggest hit of Jolie's career.

It also underscored a Hollywood gender bias that some scholars and analysts say is training girls to settle for male-geared movies, much like their grown-up counterparts.

"No one is asking whether girls will turn out for a comic-book movie; the assumption is yes," says Wheeler Winston Dixon, a film professor at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. "We are socializing young girls that this is how the movies are. Women make up an enormous percentage of moviegoers but their role is marginalized in movies, particularly in summer."

Indeed, though new data by the Motion Picture Association of America indicates that women and girls make up 52% of the American moviegoing public, just a fraction of films are geared toward them.

Of the top 10 movies of 2014, only No. 6, Divergent, is anchored by a female.

And a recent analysis by online trade publication The Wrap finds that of the 39 big-studio releases that were planned for this summer, only Jupiter Ascending, which was originally set for a July 18 release but has been pushed to February 2015, has a female director, Lana Wachowski, along with her co-director brother Andy Wachowski.

The trend, analysts say, comes despite evidence that female-friendly films can be goldmines. This weekend's The Fault in Our Stars scored a stunning No. 1 with $48 million. Still, Hollywood primarily courts boys.


"The summer is nearly always testosterone-driven," says Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst for Rentrak. "But look at franchises that are flexing their muscles: The Hunger Games, Twilight, Divergent. There's an untapped market with unbelievable potential."

Not that studios aren't looking for their next young-adult hit. This weekend's $12 million Stars, based on the popular book about a romance between two young cancer patients, crushed Tom Cruise's $178 million sci-fi extravaganza Edge of Tomorrow. And on July 25, Scarlett Johansson tries her hand at a solo action hero in Lucy, Luc Besson's story about a woman-turned-warrior. A month later, Chloë Grace Moretz anchors If I Stay, about a girl whose life is changed after a car accident.

Still, observers are puzzled by the paucity of offerings for girls, particularly given the success of female-led movies: Last year's Frozen and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire were two of the three top-grossing films of the year, earning a combined $824 million. The next Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part I opens Nov. 21, with Jennifer Lawrence returning in the starring role.

"While the guys are home playing video games and surfing the Internet, the ladies are making an event of going to the movies," Dergarabedian says. "Look at Sex and the City and Magic Mike. These are girls' nights out, and there's business to be done outside of just comic book movies."

Speaking of which: "How do we not have a Wonder Woman movie?" asks Dixon, who teaches a course on superhero films. "There's a huge fan base, of males and females. But women are ignored by the superhero system."

Dixon says the bias is a byproduct of an industry dominated in all other realms by one gender. "If your film is directed by a man, shot by a man, acted by a man and distributed by men, whose bias is it going to reflect? It's easy to see, but it's been entrenched and accepted for too long."

But Brad Ricca, author of Super Boys, about the creators of the Superman comics, says that's selling females short.

"Superhero movies absolutely appeal to girls and women," says Ricca, who teaches film at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. "Just because the protagonists are generally male doesn't mean the films are marketed to boys."

In fact, he says, "these recent films are being marketed to girls. A major selling point of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is the off-screen romance between stars Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, which commercials for the movie were focused on. We didn't even see some of the major villains in the trailers, which would be easy marks for eager comics boys."

Even Disney executives, who distributed Maleficent, concede the scheduling vacuum for female fare was a no-brainer, pundits notwithstanding.

"As you think of what's available this summer, you have Captain America, Spider-Man, Godzilla," says Dave Hollis, Disney's president of distribution. "They have a certain, well, male feel. A rock-'em-sock-'em nature. We saw a need for relief, palate-wise."

But will Hollywood's taste change permanently?

"It can take the business a while to catch up," Dergarabedian says. "But you can't deny what's happening in theaters. Studios that ignore the phenomenon do so at their own peril."






















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Weekend estimates














deadline
With five territories added in its 2nd international frame, Disney’s Maleficent scared up an estimated $59.7M. That takes its overseas total to $208.1M with a global cume of $335.47M. Mexico is still the top territory for Maleficent at $30M, followed by Russia at $24.1M, and the UK at $18.8M. Across Latin America, the average drop-off was about 28% this frame, according to Disney. In Asia, the decreases were about 32% and in Europe they were higher since the movie opened over a four-day holiday last weekend. Jolie visited China earlier this week to promote the movie which opens on June 20



Maleficent took second place with an estimated second weekend performance of $33.52 million. Disney's 3D fantasy film starring Angelina Jolie was down 52 percent from last weekend. That represented a relatively strong second weekend hold when considering the new direct competition the film faced from The Fault in Our Stars and that second weekend declines have tended to be quite large in general so far this summer. Maleficent surpassed the $100 million mark on Friday and has grossed $127.37 million in ten days. That places the film a strong 29 percent ahead of the $98.54 million ten-day take of 2012's Snow White and the Huntsman (which fell 59 percent in its second weekend to gross $23.06 million). Maleficent will face new direct competition from Fox's How to Train Your Dragon 2 next weekend, but won't really be facing any new direct competition for quite some time after next weekend.














Domestic Box Office (Estimates) Weekend of Jun 6-8 RSS Feed: Studio Reported 3 Day Estimates
Rank Title Distributor Name Weekend Revenue Cume Revenue
Revenue # of Locations* Loc AVG
1 Fault In Our Stars, The 20th Century Fox $48,200,000 3,173 15,190 $48,200,000
2 Maleficent Disney $33,523,000 3,948 8,491 $127,370,000
3 Edge Of Tomorrow Warner Bros. $29,105,000 3,490 8,339 $29,105,000
4 X-Men: Days Of Future Past 20th Century Fox $14,700,000 3,639 4,039 $189,101,266
5 Million Ways To Die In The West, A Universal $7,189,000 3,160 2,275 $30,178,970
6 Godzilla Warner Bros. $5,950,000 3,110 1,913 $185,043,006
7 Neighbors Universal $5,200,930 2,674 1,945 $137,801,425
8 Blended Warner Bros. $4,050,000 2,928 1,383 $36,508,944
9 Chef Open Road $2,600,000 1,298 2,003 $10,361,695
10 Amazing Spider-Man 2, The Sony $1,900,000 1,481 1,282 $196,288,396
11 Million Dollar Arm Disney $1,822,000 1,643 1,108 $31,347,000
12 Belle Fox Searchlight $765,000 476 1,607 $7,579,267
© Rentrak Corporation 2014 - Content in Rentrak Theatrical box office updates is produced and/or compiled by Rentrak Corporation and its Box Office Essentials® theatrical box office data collection and analytical service, and is covered by provisions of the Copyright Act. The material presented herein is intended to be available for public use. You may reproduce the content of the box office updates in any format or medium without first obtaining permission, subject to the following requirements: (1) the material must be reproduced accurately; and (2) any publication or issuance of any part of the material to others must acknowledge Rentrak Corporation as the source of the material.








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Friday, June 6, 2014


Random

Heading to the weekend - The YA portion of Maleficent's core demo will be heavily focused on The Fault in Our Stars which has already earned a Godzilla-sized $8M from Thursday eve. screenings. Weekend estimates for Fault range from mid $30M to mid $50M with the higher number looking more likely.  Edge of Tomorrow is expected to bring in $30M.  Maleficent should fall somewhere in between -- depending on how much of its core it is able to retain in the face of stiff direct competition.  Women, families and males not attracted to Edge of Tomorrow may go for Maleficent.  The film is also benefiting from repeat views.

In its first week in release, Maleficent's is running almost $2M ahead of earlier projections.


boxoffice

NORTH AMERICA: 'Maleficent' Casts Box Office Spell with $93.9M in its First Week

on June 06, 2014
 
Disney's Maleficent took in $5.399 million on Thursday to lead the box office for a seventh consecutive day. The 3D fantasy film starring Angelina Jolie was down just 4 percent from Wednesday. That percentage hold represented the day's best daily percentage among wide releases, which was especially impressive given the strong Thursday evening debut of Fox's The Fault in Our Stars (which will be counted towards Friday's opening day performance).


Earlier this week:









boxoffice.com



Twitter Tracking

Fri Jun 06 as of 03:08PM PDT
Title # Tweets
The Fault in Our Stars 286,100
Maleficent 56,867
22 Jump Street 40,706
Edge of Tomorrow 19,578
X-Men: Days of Future Past 7,500


Fri Jun 06 as of 12:08PM PDT
Title # Tweets
The Fault in Our Stars 198,916
Maleficent 51,167
22 Jump Street 28,769
Edge of Tomorrow 16,380
X-Men: Days of Future Past 5,835


Fri Jun 06 as of 10:08AM PDT
Title # Tweets
The Fault in Our Stars 148,914
Maleficent 45,088
22 Jump Street 21,801
Edge of Tomorrow 12,718
X-Men: Days of Future Past 4,776









deadline




forbes

Women's Films Ride to Box Office Success

Contributor

Last weekend, Maleficent opened magnificently to a box office total of $70 million here in the US, and over $100 million abroad. As of today, it has grossed $88 million in the US and almost $142 million overseas making its total before the weekend at a little over $230 million. This weekend the film contends against fading star in Tom Cruise in the well reviewed  Edge of Tomorrow (it is at 90% on rotten tomatoes) and the female driven tear jerker The Fault in Our Stars based on the best selling YA novel.

The Fault in Our Stars opens in the US in 3,100 theatres and with Maleficent holding onto 3,900 that means films about women dominate 7,000 screens this weekend. It has become common for summer films to unroll on Thursday nights, and last night, the Fault in Our Stars did a stellar $8.2 million in overnight screenings. The Thursday night box office take for this romance was equal to the box office take of a recent superhero film X-Men: Days of Future Past. That’s big news.  And let’s face it, Shailene Woodley is a star. She came to the world’s attention with her stellar performance in The Descendants, and then has steadily built her resume quite smartly taking on the blockbuster Divergent series (another YA sensation.) According to Fandango, 65% of people buying tickets to the film are buying them because of her, and the film is poised to be the biggest romantic drama in the company’s 14 years history.

 Shailene Woodley is now poised to be an even bigger star with the impending success of The Fault in Our Stars.  What’s fascinating to watch related to Fault is that this is a very low budget — $12 million — stand alone film that will do very good numbers without effects and without it becoming a franchise. Stand alone movies are rare these days, especially in the summer. The studio is predicting that it will make in the mid $20 million over the weekend, strong overnight and building word of mouth, it is looking like it will make at least $30-$35 million. Studios tend to hedge their bets especially related to movies about women because they really don’t have good data to build on — since they don’t release enough movies for women. Last weekend, Maleficent was predicted in the $60 million range and it ended up at $70 million, and Angelina Jolie mentioned a potential sequel this week while she was doing press in Asia.

While Fault it is based on a very popular book and has an incredible social media presence, still, a romantic tear jerker causing this much of a wave is something to talk about. And the fact that a good Tom Cruise film, and let’s face it, he hasn’t had too many lately, is going to come in second or maybe third at the box office — who knows how well Maleficent will hold — means something is clearly happening in Hollywood. It could be a generational shift, Tom Cruise is now fifty, or maybe, hopefully, the studios are figuring out that women are not box office poison, but they are box office gold. The problem continues to be that they just don’t put enough women onscreen and when they do, they always act surprised when the films are bigger successes than predicted.

But while these successes are great, they are still just a couple of films in a sea of men that have been and are still to come on our screens this summer. The upcoming Tammy starring Melissa McCarthy and well as If I Stay starring Chloe Grace Moretz are the only two films on the calendar that look to be released in a significant amount of theatres this summer (namely over 1,000.) And then there is the problem of women directors. With the delay of the Wachowski’s Jupiter Ascending from next month to next February, not a single film being released by the big six studios this summer will have been directed by a woman.

But remember there are some wonderful smaller films about and directed by women out this summer, and at the top of that list is Gillian Robespierre’s Obvious Child starring the about to burst to full fledged stardom Jenny Slate. It begins its run this weekend. While it might take an effort to find this film and other ones like Lucky Them directed by Megan Griffiths and the ever expanding Belle (it is in 476 theatres) directed by Amma Asante, I promise, it is worth it.



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Tuesday, June 3, 2014





TIME

How Hollywood Can Get More Women to See Movies

Want your summer movie to have a big opening weekend? Adding a female protagonist will help




Traditionally summer blockbusters are created for, marketed to and star men. And most major movies this summer fit that mold, including Godzilla, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and X-Men: Days of Future Past.

But Maleficent, a film starring a woman — and an evil woman at that — cast a spell on audiences with a $70 million opening weekend, hitting the high end of its pre-release expectations. Why is the Disney film doing so well? The answer is women: 60% of the movie’s over-25 audience was female. Which means the other 51% of the population does matter when it comes to creating a box office hit.

Earlier this year, an analysis by Vocativ found that movies with strong female roles make more money. This means movies that pass the Bechdel Test — a simple evaluation that questions whether two women spoke to each other in the movie about something other than a man — score higher numbers at the domestic box office. And yet, 2013 was a dismal year for women in film: of the top 100 grossing films in 2013, women made up only 15% of the protagonists, 29% of the major characters and only 30% of all speaking characters, according to the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.

That trend seems to slowly be changing. The Heat, Frozen and The Hunger Games were some of the industry’s biggest hits last year. This summer things look even better: Angelina Jolie, Emily Blunt, Shailene Woodley, Jennifer Lawrence, Cameron Diaz and Rose Byrne are all featured on the silver screen — along with a brood of male superheroes and a giant green lizard (who we’ll call genderless). Studios are finally catching on.

Unsurprisingly, movies with the most robust roles for women drew the highest percentage of females: The Other Woman‘s audience was 75% female; Maleficent‘s 60%; and Neighbors‘s 53%. The first film stars three actresses (though their dialogue may be problematic), the second centers on superstar Angelina Jolie and the third film actually lets Rose Byrne deliver almost as many jokes as co-stars Zac Efron and Seth Rogen.

(A word on the sneaky feminism of Neighbors: as he promotes the movie, screenwriter and star Seth Rogen has spoken about consciously subverting Hollywood’s gender stereotypes. “That actually became the most exciting idea of the movie to us,” Rogen told Studio360. “That we could portray a couple where the wife is just as fun-loving and irresponsible as the guy, and they get along really well. In a comedy that’s almost non-existent.” Neighbors features a fantastic scene where married couple Rogen and Byrne debate who gets to be the irresponsible one in the relationship. He says she has to be because she’s the woman, and the woman is always the wet towel. She says that’s not fair and refuses to act as his babysitter. Keep writing dialogue like this, Rogen!)

Meanwhile, movies with less interesting parts for women didn’t pull as many ladies into theaters. X-Men: Days of Future Past counts Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry and Ellen Page among its stars, but Berry is given little to do except look worried and Page — whose character goes back in time in the comic books — spends the whole movie massaging Wolverine’s head while he takes her place as all-important time traveler. Lawrence gets plenty of screen time, but her character is a clear bid for young men’s tickets sales — the Oscar winner is covered in blue body paint for most of the film. So only 44% of X-Men‘s audience was female.

Godzilla and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, both of which offer pretty female flimsy roles, clock in at 42% female and 39% female, respectively. These movies still did well at the box office, but would more women have seen X-Men if Kitty Pride (Page) was the character going back in time? My guess is yes.

The theory will continue to be tested this week when two more movies with strong female protagonists — The Fault in Our Stars, starring Woodley, and Edge of Tomorrow, co-starring Blunt along with Tom Cruise — open in theaters.

The takeaway? Getting a lot of women to see your movie is not essential to its success. Superhero and monster movies will continue to draw big crowds: Spider-Man, X-Men and Godzilla all had at least $90 million opening weekends. But courting more women certainly doesn’t hurt. After all, females make up 51% of the population.









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Monday, June 2, 2014






What “Maleficent” tells us about the future of female movie protagonists

Angelina Jolie's blockbuster hit is good news for kick-ass heroines to follow


Scarlett Johansson in "Lucy," Angelina Jolie in "Maleficent" 
 
Angelina Jolie’s “Maleficent” is by no means a superhero, but the deliciously villainous character possesses enough powers to displace an entire squad of mutants from the top spot at the box office. Though “X-Men: Days of Future Past” was already in its second week of release, the feat is still quite remarkable because of the many identifiable faces, from Hugh Jackman to Ian McKellan to Jennifer Lawrence — and their corresponding quadrants — to which the X-sequel appealed. In contrast, check the promotional material for “Maleficent” and you will see only one prominent visage. Taking it further, I challenge anyone who has not already seen the film to name two other actors featured. Angelina Jolie is one of the very few Hollywood leading ladies who has the sheer recognizability and widespread appeal to singlehandedly open a motion picture up to the chance of blockbuster success. She literally has face value. Studios are willing to bank on it, and if you want proof, recall the poster for “Salt.”

So, what does this mean for the handful of other women who breathe the same rarified air as Jolie? It’s too soon to tell, but not for long. I haven’t seen “Maleficent” yet myself, but I’m betting that all weekend long, while the Disney adventure was raking in its $70 million, it was preceded in each multiplex by a preview for Scarlett Johansson’s upcoming sci-fi action vehicle “Lucy.” Without even a franchise or a fairytale to build from, the potential success of “Lucy” hinges entirely on whether or not audiences around the world want to see a psychically-enhanced Johansson — and Johansson alone — kick butt in the near future. Though Scar-Jo may appeal to a slightly younger demographic than Jolie, the folks behind “Lucy” can’t help but feel bolstered by the fact that, this weekend, more than just teenage girls paid good money to see a beautiful, bad-ass heroine manifesting unimaginable, superhuman powers. “Lucy,” itself, will also function as a test for Johansson’s next high-profile action project, a feature film vehicle for Marvel’s Black Widow. That catsuited character made a splash alongside the Avengers, but solo is another story.


Recognizability alone is no guarantee that anyone — man or woman — can singlehandedly raise a potential tentpole. Remember, how Charlize Theron’s “Aeon Flux” eviscerated the third coolest character MTV ever generated? And mentioning Halle Berry’s name in any conversation about failed franchise attempts is simply beating a dead cat at this point. Zoe Saldana’s relatively less expensive “Colombiana” failed to get too far off the ground as well. But that doesn’t mean Saldana isn’t willing to go it again. Since 2011, the “Star Trek” starlet has had a project on the books entitled “Dominion,” in which she is set to play a half-angel with a full set of wings — two more than “Maleficent” herself. I’m guessing that project may yet have a chance to take flight. And there are apparently three “Avatar” sequels in the works. With male co-star Sam Worthington’s off-Pandora heat waning and Saldana about to get a tremendous bump from Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy,” we may see a well-deserved change in the order of the billing. Hell, it was her (blue) face on most of the posters, anyway.

While it makes sense that actresses of or near Jolie’s commercial caliber have the most to gain from “Maleficent’s” ongoing triumph, I wouldn’t doubt that lesser-knowns are also watching with equal anticipation. Case in point, Israeli actress Gal Gadot is all set to play Wonder Woman in a film adaptation of the iconic DC superhero. (Gadot was in the last few “Fast and the Furious” movies — but then, who wasn’t?) By the time “Wonder Woman” comes out, Zack Snyder’s upcoming “Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice” will have established her in the role of Diana Prince and significantly raised her profile. Gadot’s look is exotic, not unlike Jolie’s, and the potential for international appeal exists. Chances are still slim that the Amazonian Princess will one day conquer a field most dominated by supercharged men, but they grow a little more likely with each day that a witch sits atop the box office.

Neil Drumming Neil Drumming is Salon's TV critic. Follow him on Twitter @Neil_Salon









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Tuesday, July 30, 2013







Grant land
By Tess Lynch on 



KEN ISHII/GETTY

Angelina Jolie, who last appeared onscreen in 2010’s The Tourist (remember? With Johnny Depp? With whom she shared so little chemistry that “a microscope and a search party could not discover any trace of” it?), has topped Forbes’s list of this year’s highest-paid actresses, ranking 41st overall (Oprah, Lady Gaga, Steven Spielberg, Beyoncé, and Madonna were credited with the top five most powerful celebrity spots). Forbes cites Jolie’s “north of $15 million” salary for 2014’s Maleficent — her then-4-year-old daughter Vivienne Jolie-Pitt reportedly earned $3,000 a week for her role in the film — and $33 million in earnings between June of 2012 and last month, which places her more than $7 million ahead of the next highest-paid actress, Jennifer Lawrence.
Jolie’s Forbes title is accompanied by a few paragraphs about her “honest, controversial and very brave” New York Times op-ed about her double mastectomy, and no mention of the Kung Fu Panda movies, to which Jolie lent her voice in 2008 and 2011 (despite the fact that Kung Fu Panda 2 was her highest-grossing film). Her focus is shifting toward more off-camera roles these days as a humanitarian, director, and writer (she helmed 2011’s In the Land of Blood and Honey, and will direct Unbroken, which opens on Christmas 2014), which only serves to diversify her brand and make her seem like a more compelling personality; even when she disappears from sight to recuperate from surgery, her Wind Song stays on our minds. Her endorsement deal paychecks are astronomical, despite the fact that her presence can be a distraction from over-the-elbow leather gloves she's selling. There’s something stern about her power ranking, serious and cold and regal. She seems to earn money simply by existing.
Jolie is no stranger to the Forbes list. She knocked Oprah out of the most powerful position in 2009 following Wanted, which grossed $340 million, and tied for the highest-paid actress position with Sarah Jessica Parker in 2011. This year, Oprah returned to the top of the 100 list, but that credit has been hard-won; Oprah’s efforts to resuscitate the OWN network come with the cost of having to talk with Andy Cohen and brandish her clout as much as possible. Beyoncé had a world tour and Lady Gaga has continued to self-publicize for her upcoming album ARTPOP and “unisex fragrance line” despite a hip injury, riding around in a fancy, attention-grabbing wheelchair.
Forbes once spilled ink comparing Jolie and Brad Pitt to Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, but despite generous tabloid speculation, Pitt and Jolie are either very good at keeping their drama contained within the walls of their castle in the south of France, or just sitting around lamenting the state of the world and designing chairs without any notable bickering. The endless eight-year headline search for the fall of the house of Brangelina, a hunt that eventually was willing to settle for just a dangling bit of scaffolding or a broken window, has turned up little but manicured rows of adorable adopted children standing before the firmly locked door of a sturdy stone structure. What we know of Jolie at this point is exactly what she wants us to know, that prized feat of celebrity that’s even more impressive because she’s successfully diverted so much attention to the causes of her choice.
Jolie has become so influential, she’s like a black hole: The void left by her absence on the big screen only made her more massive. So much about her persona seems implausible — her beauty, her family, her past — that its easy to subconsciously assume she’s acting all the time, presenting us with a performance so skilled that we pretend to believe she’s a real person. Sherlock Holmes said that “the best way of successfully acting a part is to be it,” and though it doesn’t show up on her IMDb page, Jolie’s best and most successful credit has proven to be simply playing herself.







FilmExperience

By Nathhaniel R.


Top Ten Biggest Money-Making Actresses Right Now

DateTuesday, July 30, 2013 at 1:00PM
For today's Tuesday's Top Ten we're using Forbes numbers for discussion lift-off We recently discussed their list of the top paid actors from the past twelve months and came to the conclusion that they don't challenge themselves much at all. The women are aslightly different story. While it's true that no one would mistake this for a list of 'The Best Actresses Working' or 'The Actresses Who Are Currently Testing The Limits of Their Range,' this list does have slightly more variety in filmography though far less in terms of beauty and age as is always the case with the men and the women of Hollywood
01 Angelina Jolie $33
Tops the list by way of signing on to Maleficent for Disney. The Sleeping Beauty prequel is a surefire hit, both because it's presold -- branding being everything -- and because it's Jolie who rarely falters at the box office. 
nine more ladies and an actress poll after the jump

02 Jennifer Lawrence $26 
The youngest woman on the list (almost 23) is Hollywood's reigning "Best Actress" and Queen of Internet Fandom (seriously, people be obsessed!). She had a sleeper hit with Silver Linings Playbook (the first romantic comedy to strike it rich with the trifecta - critics, audiences, Oscars - in quite some time) but it's the Hunger Games and X-Men paychecks that will sustain her even if she retires by 25.
03 Kristen Stewart $22
With Twilight wrapping up, Forbes warns that she will drop off this list next year. She could certainly use a little time away from the spotlight since she doesn't seem to enjoy it all that much. Still, I doubt she's "over". (She was #1 last year)
04 Jennifer Aniston $20
Is the closest thing the female list has to someone who would not look at all out of place on the corresponding male list: she almost never tests her range and the films make money and are then instantly forgotten. 
05 Emma Stone $16
Will this be the decade of Stone? She broke out big in 2010 with Easy A nd it's been smooth sailing since with big hits (The Help, The Amazing Spider-Man), regular size hits (Crazy Stupid Love), and a flop no one blamed on her (Gangster Squad). She's got adoring fans, adorable boyfriend, and critical adoration; Easy A indeed. But I'd say the next few projects are crucial if she wants to establish herself as a formidable actress and not just a popular one. Her best performance is still easily Easy A so shouldn't she be grabbing at juicier lead roles and stop playing second fiddle to another star as she's been doing ever since? (DEBUT ON THIS LIST)
06 Charlize Theron $15
We interviewed her. We love her. The comeback was a resounding success and we hope she sticks around this time. Forbest notes that her extracurricular activities (like the Dior campaign) are a big key to her financial success since she takes risks like Young Adult. We like our actresses best this way. If you have to be a gazillionaire do it with endorsements but create indelible characters that are yours alone on the big screen even if no one will pay you the big bucks to make them!
07 Sandra Bullock $14 
With another big hit in theaters she'll be on the list again next year when she turns 50. Such longevity with that one (as previously discussed)!
08 Natalie Portman $14 
09 Mila Kunis $11
The Black Swan girls are still circling each other... at least in list form. And if you ask me their acting careers are as f***ed up as their ballerina relationship was. Doesn't it seem like Portman hasn't registered much at all since Black Swan? The money keeps rolling in thanks to Thor in which she plays the girlfriend (a role that could have been played by anyone). Mila had two big hits recently with Oz: The Great and Powerful (in which she was terrible) and Ted (in which her role could have been played by anyone). These are all ways to make a lot of money but is this any way to sustain an A list career? They both really ought to be looking for the next Black Swan and not the next franchise which doesn't really need them. Do you agree?
10 Julia Roberts $11
Her instant hit-maker days are behind her but she still commands a hefty paycheck.


LATimes

Angelina Jolie, a less conventional Forbes chart-topper


Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie arrive at the red carpet for the "World War Z" German premiere in Berlin. (Andreas Rentz / June 4, 2013)
Related photos »

By Mark Olsen
August 1, 2013, 8:24 a.m.

In case you were unaware, Angelina Jolie is famous. Like, really famous. So in one sense it's perfectly logical that she would top the most recent Forbes list for highest-paid actresses, with earnings of $33 million over the last year, according to a report from the magazine earlier this week.
The Guardian broke down that number to include a $10-million contract with Louis Vuitton and a $15-million salary for her upcoming role as the evil stepmother in a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty tale, “Maleficent,” scheduled for release next year.
But Jolie is also different from many of the popular performers who top that list, having not appeared in a film since 2010’s “The Tourist.” Jolie hasn’t exactly been doing the things a movie star is expected to do. Like star in movies.

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Jolie seems determined to forge her own path, which makes her one of the least conventional actresses to top the earners list in a long while.
Much of her time, after all, is spent doing work on behalf of the United Nations. When she does turn to movies, she's increasingly focused on directing projects. Following her 2011 feature debut, the Bosnian War drama “In the Land of Blood and Honey” – nominated for a Golden Globe in the category of best foreign language film – she will next be directing “Unbroken,” the story of Olympic runner and World War II POW Louis Zamperini, from a screenplay adapted by Joel And Ethan Coen.

By comparison, Jennifer Lawrence, No. 2 on the Forbes list with $26 million, has recently acted in  both the “Hunger Games” and “X-Men” franchises and picked up an Oscar for “The Silver Linings Playbook.” Kristen Stewart, No. 3 with $22 million, saw the “Twilight” series wrap up. Jennifer Aniston, Jolie's foil in tabloid narratives, earned $20 million while Emma Stone brought in an estimated $16 million, each acting in a plethora of movies over the last few years.

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On the male side, Robert Downey Jr., named to the top spot a few weeks ago, has regularly had a big springtime movie -- "The Avengers" last year, "Iron Man 3" this year, "The Avengers 2" next year.
Jolie? She's best known in 2013 for a very different kind of role--as a poster child for preventive surgery, after her headline-grabbing announcement that she had undergone a double mastectomy as a means of heading off breast cancer.

In some ways the career Jolie’s might currently be most similar to is that of her partner Brad Pitt, who does a lot of humanitarian work as well and also seems increasingly interested in recent years in a role behind the camera, as a producer. (Though Pitt does often act in a couple of movies each year. The actor, incidentally, did not make Forbes’ recent list of top 10 earning actors, which means he made less than No. 10 Liam Neeson’s $32 million. Slacker.)

Since Jolie and Pitt became one of the world’s most famous couples in the wake of the blockbuster success of 2005’s “Mr. And Mrs. Smith” – an action-movie satire that’s also a sharp treatise on modern marriage – the two have seemed determined and increasingly savvy in using their outsized celebrity to their own ends. It hasn't stopped them from raking it in, Forbes-style. But what’s the point in being mega-famous and super-rich if you can’t do what you want?



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Wednesday, June 5, 2013









THR

Revenge of the Over-40 Actress

9:00 AM PDT 6/5/2013 by Tatiana Siegel

They were looking to cast a man. It was summer 2011, and Jason Bateman and producer Scott Stuber were searching for a co-lead who could play the titular scam artist in their movie Identity Thief. Taking an evening off to attend the premiere of Bridesmaids, Bateman didn't expect to discover the solution to their problem. But then he witnessed Melissa McCarthy's a-comedy-star-is-born performance as a no-nonsense gal who barrels her way through wedding preparations. The next morning, Bateman called Stuber with a bold idea: Overhaul the script and tailor the role of the thief for McCarthy, then 40.

It proved a stroke of casting genius as moviegoers greeted McCarthy's appearance in the movie's first trailers with huge, welcoming laughter. Marketed largely on her raucous comic appeal, the Universal release has become the sixth-highest-grossing film of the year domestically, with a $134.5 million haul as of June 2, outperforming the Tom Cruise sci-fi outing Oblivion and dwarfing the Michael Bay-helmed Mark Wahlberg starrer Pain & Gain.

McCarthy's whirlwind success story suggests, just maybe, that Hollywood's youth-obsessed climate has begun to thaw, paving the way for what would have been impossible only a decade ago — a female film star born after age 40. McCarthy's box-office power will be further tested June 28 when Fox releases The Heat, a mismatched-buddy action comedy in which McCarthy, now 42, plays a Boston cop who teams up with an FBI agent, played by the 48-year-old Sandra Bullock, in pursuit of a drug lord. Expectations for a summer breakout hit are so high that Fox already is prepping a sequel for Bullock, McCarthy and director Paul Feig.

"We could have easily told the story with two 30-year-olds, but it didn't seem to have the resonance that I wanted it to have," says Feig, who also directed Bridesmaids. "The whole reason that Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock are the stars of The Heat is they are the funniest, most awesome women who could play these roles."

Bullock and McCarthy are but two of the over-40 actresses whose careers aren't just thriving but dominating big castings in Hollywood. For decades, middle-aged actresses largely were relegated to the sidelines in studio films, fighting for supporting roles -- figuratively and literally -- as the hero's wife, mother or teacher (who can forget Sally Field's infamous casting, at age 47, as Tom Hanks' mother in 1994's Forrest Gump when he was 37). The longevity of a handful of exceptions such as Meryl Streep, Helen Mirren and Diane Keaton notwithstanding, most starring film roles went to actresses under 40.

Interestingly, many of those actresses who were hot a decade ago as thirtysomethings still sit atop the A-list as fortysomethings. Cameron Diaz of the Shrek franchise was 28 when she first was the voice of Princess Fiona. Now, at 40, she is regarded as the highest-paid actress among the over-40 set. While many actresses might not command the same upfront fees as their male counterparts, Diaz -- who received first-dollar gross on the 2011 comedy Bad Teacher instead of her occasional $15 million fee, despite Sony's reluctance to do such deals -- ended up scoring $42 million after the movie (which cost $20 million to make) grossed $216.2 million worldwide. Her deal for Sony's comedy Sex Tape, in which she and Jason Segel, 33, will play a married couple trying to recover a missing sex tape they made together, is said to be similarly structured.

Of course, Hollywood suddenly isn't socially enlightened. MPAA stats for 2012 cite that more than one-third of all tickets purchased domestically were by those age 40 or over. Furthermore, at 28 percent, baby boomers are the largest segment of the overall population. It also is a demographic that most likes to see movies in a theater -- having developed the habit long ago. "The audience is aging," says a studio chief. "It's no surprise that the stars are as well."

The numbers bear the facts out: Streep, now 63, enjoyed the biggest hit of her career when Mamma Mia!, the highest-grossing movie musical of all time, took in $609.8 million worldwide. Bullock's 2009 drama The Blind Side racked up $309.2 million, while Nancy Meyers' It's Complicated took in $219.1 million globally. Older actresses are front-and-center at awards shows as well: Naomi Watts, 44, was among the most recent crop of best actress Oscar nominees for The Impossible, a sizable indie hit that grossed $172.5 million worldwide. And among the supporting actress nominees, three were over 40: Helen Hunt, who didn't shy away from nude scenes in The Sessions at 49; Jacki Weaver, 66, from Silver Linings Playbook; and Field, 66, who fought to secure her role in Lincoln opposite Daniel Day-Lewis, who's 10 years younger than she. And in the foreign sales arena, age also has its perks, with one agent contending the top female sells abroad are Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Mirren and Streep.

"There's a change afoot," says Sean Bailey, head of production at Disney live-action films. "Part of that is attributable to changing audience trends. Women and a broader array of age groups are starting to matter more and more. A lot of these big movies are no longer solely dependent on young men showing up. When you take that in combination with the number of phenomenal actresses in this age range, it adds up to something exciting."

When it comes to salaries, the high-water mark for an actress -- of any age -- is the more than $20 million that Angelina Jolie, 38, commanded for 2010's Salt, in which she played a CIA agent. But that was a straight-up summer action thriller. Those types of movies, and their commensurate paychecks, usually go to men. Actresses, on those occasions when they do find themselves as the top name above the title, are more likely to be in dramas or romantic comedies, which aren't budgeted as lavishly. As a result, confides one exec, actresses' quotes tend to be "schizophrenic."

Still, top film actresses in their 40s now outearn their counterparts in their 30s, say several studio executives. "There are more exceptional [casting] choices in the over-40 range than there are in the 30s range," says Fox 2000 president Elizabeth Gabler. "The 30s range is kind of the tricky zone right now." She explains that talent sometimes comes in waves, and with only a few exceptions such as Rachel McAdams and Amy Adams, the next generation hasn't produced as many shining stars.
Industry sources peg Bullock as among the top tier of actresses over 40 when it comes to salaries. She earned $10 million for Heat. McCarthy, who earned $2.5 million for Heat, quickly has moved into the $3 million-to-$4 million range -- and could be about to jump sharply again. And Streep is said to get about $6 million a movie (though she just agreed to $1.5 million upfront to play the central role of the witch in Rob Marshall's adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Broadway musical Into the Woods).
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No doubt, Hollywood's dearth of new stars, male and female, after a decade of franchises and tentpoles has further empowered older actresses. Planned obsolescence used to be the norm, where fresh young faces eventually obliterate the existing reigning class. But the new premium on concept over casting has upended a nearly 100-year-old star system. The March 2013 Performer Q Study, which measures both how well-known and how well-liked a celebrity is, found Bullock statistically tied with Hanks, 56, for the film star top spot among U.S. survey respondents over 18. "Her movie roles have been so diverse, from comedies to serious, that she's tracking younger and older, male and female. She cuts across the spectrum," says Henry Schafer, exec vp at The Q Scores Co. In fact, the list's top names reveal how decades-long relationships with the public, cultivated in an age when images could be built over years and not through the Internet alone, matter. Bullock, Julia Roberts, 45, and Streep are the three film actresses with the highest Q scores, with Bullock scoring 89 percent in recognition and a 41 Q score. By contrast, though their scores are higher among younger respondents, among all adults over 18, newly minted Oscar winners Anne Hathaway and Jennifer Lawrence rate Q scores of 20 and 15, respectively, while Twilight's Kristen Stewart checks in at just 10. "Unlike Bullock, Roberts and Streep, Lawrence and Stewart have a younger appeal," says Schafer. "Anne Hathaway is the exception [among young actresses]. She has good crossover appeal with all ages."

Even so, the industry still reacts with surprise whenever a female star demonstrates box-office clout. On March 15, The Call, an otherwise routine thriller, opened as that weekend's top new wide release thanks to the presence of Halle Berry, 46. The TriStar film bowed to $17.1 million, trouncing the heavily promoted Steve Carell-Jim Carrey comedy The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (in which Carell, 50, was paired romantically with Olivia Wilde, 29). Female moviegoers made up 56 percent of Call's audience, and 48 percent of the overall audience cited Berry as the reason for turning out.

 Making sure older female moviegoers -- in Hollywood's marketing lingo, "older" means those over 25 -- have someone to root for in a movie even can factor into the casting of tentpoles looking to attract all four quadrants. And so, Gwyneth Paltrow, 40, became a key marketing hook for this year's top-performing film to date, Iron Man 3. (It's worth noting that when Marvel and director Jon Favreau were assembling the first Iron Man, they sought McAdams, then 29, for the role of Pepper Potts, which Paltrow eventually made her own.) "Ever since I've turned 40, I feel younger than ever and more energetic," announced Paltrow at the Iron Man 3 premiere in Hollywood. "I'm ready. I'm ready for action now."

There's even talk that Penelope Cruz is being eyed to play a Bond girl in the superspy's next outing, and if it does happen, that would make Cruz, who will turn 40 before production begins, the oldest Bond girl to date (excepting, of course, Judi Dench's M).

Outside of the economics at play here, other factors seem to be at work in the embrace of the over-40 actress. For starters, TV paved the way: Kyra Sedgwick, 47, was one of the first to inaugurate what would become a trend when she stepped into TNT's The Closer in 2005. Soon the basic cable landscape seemed to become the province of smart, take-charge women, with Glenn Close, 66, appearing first on FX's The Shield and then FX's Damages, and Holly Hunter, 55, starring on TNT's Saving Grace. "In TV, it's better now than it ever has been. Great, wonderful cable shows and even network shows are being built around female leads," says Leslie Siebert, senior managing partner at the Gersh Agency. "But even TV now has become so competitive because of people like Robin Wright or Laura Linney. The women who are going after these roles, it's crazy. But at least the product is there."

And there also is no ignoring the simple fact that older women just look better these days. It might be the wonder of dermatology, colorists and trainers, but women over 40 no longer are expected to look matronly -- rather, it's presumed that they'll go toe-to-toe on the red carpet with their younger peers. At 67, Mirren -- caught sunning in a bikini in a paparazzi shot that went viral in 2011 -- might be an extreme example. But she's hardly alone. Julianne Moore, 52, moonlights as a model, appearing in ads for Bulgari and Revlon. "There's a real sexiness, appeal and allure to these women because they are seasoned professionals, and they know exactly how to look and how to walk on a red carpet," says New York premiere guru Andrew Saffir, citing Sarah Jessica Parker, Sofia Vergara, Paltrow, Susan Sarandon, Jane Fonda and Moore among his favorites. "A red-carpet photo of Sarah Jessica Parker is prized. Nicole Kidman never disappoints on the red carpet: statuesque, beyond chic, takes fashion chances, and she is confident. And it's actually confidence that a lot of these women have in common, and it's that confidence that truly radiates."

Fox 2000's Gabler traces the current wave of films featuring actresses over 40 to the 2006 comedy The Devil Wears Prada, starring Streep, who was 57 when the movie was released. Hathaway, then 23, might have played the movie's new girl in the big city, but it was Streep, as fearsome magazine editor Miranda Priestly, who got the lion's share of the credit when the $35 million movie collected $326.6 million worldwide.

"I think Prada was one of the benchmarks of the trend because it was this iconic role with this brilliant actress in Streep that was hugely successful," says Gabler. "To see her in a role that was identifiable to both men and women was key to opening people's eyes that this works. I think it started this surge of terrific performances from actresses over 40 that we're seeing now. It's not just a young person's market anymore."

In 2011, DreamWorks' The Help further underscored the appeal of female-driven ensemble movies as the modestly budgeted $25 million drama pulled in $211.6 million worldwide. Although it featured relative newcomers such as Emma Stone and Jessica Chastain, it also leaned heavily on the appeal of such veteran performers as Allison Janney, 53, Viola Davis, 47, and, most especially, Octavia Spencer, 43, who would go on to win the best supporting actress Oscar.
"These types of dramas were out for a while, and now they seem to be back in," contends DreamWorks president of production Holly Bario. "And they tend to offer juicy parts for women over 40."

Older actresses also are beginning to make inroads by capturing roles that just as easily could have gone to a man. McCarthy's casting in Identity Thief wasn't some comic fluke: According to one top dealmaker, another high-profile comedy role originally written for a man is being recrafted for McCarthy. And when DreamWorks brass was looking to fill the critical role of a crusading State Department staffer for its upcoming WikiLeaks project The Fifth Estate, they looked no further than 49-year-old Linney, who in the past decade has moved deftly between Oscar-bait films including The Savages and Kinsey and star vehicles on cable TV like Showtime's The Big C and HBO's John Adams.

"We needed someone with some real gravitas who you would take seriously in the part," says Bario. "You need someone with real credibility. Ten years ago, the role would have simply been cast as a man. But we wanted to work with her."

But while more opportunities are there, navigating a successful film career is tricky -- for actresses of any age.

Serving as something of a doorkeeper for many of the hottest actresses in the over-40 demo is CAA's Kevin Huvane. He has cornered the market with a roster that includes Bullock, McCarthy, Streep, Davis, Berry, Jennifer Aniston, Kidman, Jennifer Lopez, Moore, Wright, Renee Zellweger, Parker, Close and Annette Bening. However, rival agents snicker at the downside of Huvane's stacked list. "When a hot script comes in, is Aniston the sixth person to see it?" asks a rival agent. While CAA insists many of those on Huvane's list have happily been with him for years, Huvane declined comment.

To maintain a career -- and to ensure its momentum -- actresses, and their teams, actively have to be involved in nurturing it: taking on a variety of roles, looking to image-enhancing jobs in indie films and TV. To some observers, for example, Aniston has been in one too many romantic comedies. "She's played the damsel in distress too often, and so hasn't really shown her range," says one.

 Instead, better to mix it up. Consider Vera Farmiga, who turns 40 this summer: She recently landed the female lead in Warner Bros.' The Judge opposite Robert Downey Jr. -- like Paltrow, she'll be playing an age-appropriate love interest for the 48-year-old Downey.

"We still see scripts where it says the male lead is 38, but we know he's going to be played by a guy who's 45, and the female lead is written as 28, 29," notes Farmiga's manager, Jon Rubinstein. "But things are changing. It's not like they're putting Demi Lovato opposite Downey."

Farmiga's career arc mirrors that of many of her contemporaries whose stock remains in demand even when they no longer can play the ingenue. She hasn't just sat around waiting to be invited to the party. Instead, after earning a best supporting actress Oscar nomination for 2009's Up in the Air, in which she more than held her own as a tough-as-nails road warrior opposite George Clooney, the actress chose to use the moment to direct the drama Higher Ground, which Sony Pictures Classics released in 2011. Similarly, in-demand stars from Jolie (In the Land of Blood and Honey) to Drew Barrymore (Whip It) temporarily have put their lucrative acting careers on hold in their mid-30s to direct feature films.

 Farmiga then made the once-taboo decision to dabble in TV at the height of her big-screen career, taking a starring role on A&E's Bates Motel as Norma Bates, domineering mother to psycho-in-training Norman Bates. The move has paid off -- the unstable Norma has been a real showcase, allowing the actress to whipsaw between flirtatiousness one moment and murderous rage the next -- and the series has been picked up for a second season.

"I advise any actor to take control of your career," says Feig. "Start doing stand-up. Start writing roles for yourself. When you're sitting around waiting for the town to have an epiphany, you're going to sit forever. Look for the parts, chase the parts, but at the same time, seize control."

Kristen Wiig did just that when she co-wrote and starred in Feig's Bridesmaids. She finds herself among the town's most in-demand despite being on the precipice of 40 (she turns 40 this summer). "She's definitely someone who can get a movie made on her name alone," notes Gabler.

Cable TV continues to be a mainstay for actresses looking to challenge any preconceptions about them. "People who weren't getting great movie roles went where the great roles were," says HBO programming president Michael Lombardo of the move to TV. "The journey from TV back to movies became a much more fluid, accepted and easy journey for women of a certain age than the traditional 35-year-old female movie star."

 He credits Elizabeth I, the 2005 HBO miniseries starring Mirren as the fabled queen, for reigniting that actress' career because it "helped audiences rediscover this incredibly vital, sexy, powerful woman over 40. It helped her build a successful and exciting career as a woman over 40."
Mirren's counterparts taking advantage of the HBO route include Cate Blanchett, 44, who is developing the memoir Cancer Vixen at HBO about cartoonist Marisa Acocella Marchetto's battle with breast cancer; and Kidman, 45, who starred in HBO's Hemingway & Gellhorn and is developing the best-seller Reconstructing Amelia.

And streaming services like Netflix also promise to be welcoming. Wright, 47, has earned some of the best reviews of the year for the Netflix series House of Cards, playing a modern-day Lady Macbeth to Kevin Spacey's scheming congressman. That move, which at one time might have looked risky, has done nothing to hurt her big-screen opportunities. She stars in a pair of upcoming films: the Anton Corbijn-helmed thriller A Most Wanted Man opposite McAdams and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and the sexy drama Adore with Watts. And she's even grappled with the plight of aging actresses in Ari Folman's animated The Congress, which just debuted at the Cannes Film Festival.

"Cable television has become the savior for women over 40," says Feig. "That's where all these strong, interesting female roles are happening now -- Weeds, The Big C. It used to be if you're on a TV show, you're dead in movies. Now a great TV show is the road to becoming a movie star."
Laura Dern, 46, has become the envy of many over-40 actresses with her self-developed starring vehicle Enlightened on HBO, which ran for two seasons before being canceled. Lucy Liu, 44, who launched her career on the Fox series Ally McBeal, made the move back to the small screen, first with the police drama Southland and now with the CBS hit Elementary. Salma Hayek, 46, has been producing (Ugly Betty), directing (The Maldonado Miracle) and acting (30 Rock) on TV for years. Other fortysomething film stars making inroads in TV include Paltrow (with guest spots on Glee and The New Normal) and Helena Bonham Carter, 47, who will play Elizabeth Taylor in an upcoming BBC movie about Taylor's relationship with Richard Burton.

And Roberts, who between 1990's Pretty Woman and 2000's Erin Brockovich reigned as the top female film star of the '90s, is just taking on her first major TV role. The 45-year-old actress will play a wheelchair-bound physician who is one of the first to recognize the developing AIDS crisis in HBO's The Normal Heart, an adaptation of Larry Kramer's autobiographical play. (Ellen Barkin won a Tony for her performance in the same role when the 1985 play arrived on Broadway two years ago.) Not that Roberts can be accused of slumming. The blue-chip production, which HBO hopes to air in May, is being directed by Ryan Murphy (who helmed Roberts' 2010 feature Eat Pray Love), and Brad Pitt's Plan B is producing.

 Still, not every actress is enamored with the medium. When Berry made the switch from ICM to CAA, Huvane began putting her up for TV projects. But Berry balked, deeming it beneath her. Still, scoffs one industryite, "Please, Halle Berry reinvented her career after winning an Emmy for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge."

Bullock and Watts also won't do TV. And though Rachel Weisz starred in the British TV movie Page Eight, she has yet to take the plunge into U.S. television. "If you can make several million dollars for four weeks of work on a studio film versus less money for 10 months on a TV show, why would you do TV?" asks a rep of one of the most in-demand female stars of the 40-to-49 set.

But not all the news is encouraging. A recent USC study tracked characters appearing in the 500 top-grossing films from 2007 to 2012 and found that the percentage of females between the ages of 40 and 64 has not changed meaningfully over time. The majority of all female characters onscreen in the 100 most popular films in 2012 were between ages 21 and 39. And, among characters in the 40- to 64-year-old range, males outnumbered female characters by nearly 4-to-1.
And for all the evidence that suggests that, cast in the right vehicle, older actresses can triumph, it's not clear that everyone in Hollywood has received the message -- particularly at those studios where male execs dominate.

Bullock, for example, didn't immediately percolate to the top of Warners' wish list when it was casting Alfonso Cuaron's upcoming space thriller Gravity -- despite her status as one of the studio's most dependable earners with such hits over the course of her career as Miss Congeniality, Two Weeks Notice and Blind Side. First, Marion Cotillard tested for the lead. Later, Scarlett Johansson and Blake Lively were in the running. Eventually, Natalie Portman was offered the part without a screen test. It was only after Portman passed that Warners finally approached Bullock.
Her co-star Clooney? He's 52.
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