Forbes have come up with a list of the top earning on-screen couples ever and it’s pretty much full of people who starred together in a franchise. As opposed to back in the day when Hollywood stars would star in a few movies together. Before I even read the list I knew who would be on top, take a look for yourself…
Ben Stiller and Teri Polo, $1 billion
Little Fockers might be one of the worst reviewed movies of 2010, but it is making a lot of money. So far the Meet the Parents trilogy has earned $1 billion at the box office. With those kinds of numbers, a fourth movie can’t be far behind. Expect more trouble for the young marrieds played by Stiller and Polo.
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Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, $1.2 billion
We didn’t include this couple when we first did this list last year because after the first Iron Man, they still weren’t really a couple. But in the second movie, Downey’s Tony Stark admitted his feelings for Paltrow’s Pepper Potts. No word on if Paltrow will make an appearance in the upcoming film The Avengers, which will feature Iron Man, among other heroes.
Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen, $1.5 billion
Hayden Christensen didn’t make his Star Wars debut as Anakin Skywalker until the fifth movie, Attack of the Clones. But his relationship with Natalie Portman’s Padme was crucial to the sci-fi tale as the pair ultimately became parents to Luke and Leia.
Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox, $1.5 billion
Transformers is really all about robots that turn into cars but somewhere in the first two movies was a love story between LaBeouf’s Sam Witwicky and Fox’s Mikaela Banes. The two couldn’t have been that inseparable though because director Michael Bay decided to jettison Fox in the third movie in favor of Victoria’s Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, $1.8 billion
While romance is secondary in some of the films discussed on this list, it’s the main theme in the Twilight series about a human girl, played by Stewart, who falls for Pattinson’s sensitive vampire. There are still two films left in the successful franchise. A movie based on the first half of Breaking Dawn hits theaters this coming November.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, $1.9 billion
For a film with equal parts romance and action it’s hard to do better than Titanic. The 1997 film featured a pair of doomed, class-crossed lovers set against the epic sinking of the giant cruise ship. The film is the second-highest-grossing of all time with $1.8 billion. DiCaprio and Winslet appeared together again in the much smaller film Revolutionary Road in 2008.
Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley, $2.7 billion
Yes, the Pirates franchise is mostly about Johnny Depp staggering around like a drunk who just fell into a case of makeup. But for the first three films there was a romance that helped ground the movies. Seems like Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer didn’t think it was crucial to the story though. Bloom and Knightley’s characters have been written out of the fourth installment.
Viggo Mortensen and Liv Tyler, $3 billion
As Aragorn and the elf Arwen, Mortensen and Tyler play a pair of lovers struggling to maintain a relationship amid an epic quest to destroy evil. The pair helped make the fantasy films a bit more relatable for people who got confused by all the characters in Middle Earth. No word on if the pair will appear in the upcoming prequel: The Hobbit.
Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, $6.3 billion
It took seven movies but Ron and Hermione are finally acting on their long simmering love. In the most recent Harry Potter film, Rupert Grint got to do a bit of bravura acting watching his worst fears come to life, including Watson’s Hermione falling in love with Harry instead of him. Expect the pair to finally smooch in the final film hitting theaters this summer.
Some actors specialize in romantic leads. Others make careers as evil geniuses or nurturing moms. Today, let’s give nerds a place in the sun. They trip, they choke, they make us roll our eyes and shake our heads. Sometimes, they even get the girl (or guy). They are the kids you made fun of in high school — or they’re you in high school. No need to say which.
Woody Allen
Although he played the romantic lead in many of his own movies (especially the early ones), Woody Allen is a nerd extraordinaire. In Play It Again, Sam, he makes a killer first impression on his date by dropping her coat on the floor and then swinging it into some breakables. The agonizing discomfort he goes through in Bananas while trying to buy a nude magazine might literally make you itch. With his thick glasses, unkempt hair, and nervous stammer, Allen remains the gold standard of nerds.
Anthony Michael Hall
Sometimes a director finds a go-to nerd and sticks with him, which is what happened when John Hughes found Anthony Michael Hall. Hall managed a triple dose of teenage awkwardness in Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Weird Science. Whether dancing in a “very hot” manner for Molly Ringwald or recounting his tragic inability to make a lamp that works, Hall is, by turns, cringe-worthy and sympathetic. Getting his pants pulled down by Robert Downey Jr. elevates him to classic status.
Ben Stiller
Ben Stiller perfectly illustrates the nerd necessities. First, an obliviousness to looking and acting stupid. See: Zoolander (pursed lips, odd strut, interchangeable “looks”). Second, incurable klutziness: in There’s Something About Mary, he suffers the ultimate self-inflicted groin injury. Third, a genuine desire to fit in: witness Stiller’s sad attempts to impress — or at least survive — his alarming potential father-in-law in Meet the Parents.
Joan Cusack
Joan Cusack’s character in Sixteen Candles was officially called Geek Girl #1, and her big scene involved banging her headgear against a water fountain as she tried to get a drink. She went on to play a boatload of wacky sidekicks, from the inappropriately loud and brassy (Working Girl) to the frazzled and clumsy (Broadcast News) to the cross-eyed and rather dim (Married to the Mob).
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis elevated nerdiness to an art form, incorporating slapstick, weird costuming, and even weirder voices as he played put-upon working-class heroes in The Disorderly Orderly, The Errand Boy, and The Big Mouth. He could wring laughs and squirms out of a confrontation with a salty bowl of soup (Cinderfella) or an invisible typewriter (Who’s Minding the Store?). Even his smoothies, like Buddy Love, in The Nutty Professor, were dweeby.
Clint Howard
For stellar under-the-radar nerd performances, look no further than the career of Clint Howard, brother of director Ron Howard. He played small but memorable roles in a slew of comedies like the Austin Powers series and Rock ‘n’ Roll High School. He also appeared in B-horror flicks like Carnosaur and The Wraith and some high-profiles (Apollo 13, Cinderella Man, Frost/Nixon).
Rick Moranis
Rick Moranis rose to prominence on Second City Television, then went on to reprise one of his most notable characters — co-host of The Great White North — in The Adventures of Bob and Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew. His nebbish visage graced Club Paradise and Brewster’s Millions, but he really hit his stride with roles in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Little Shop of Horrors. Moranis impresses most when contrasted with a more confident screen mate, as when he played opposite Bill Murray, in Ghostbusters.
Curtis Armstrong
Curtis Armstrong is uncool yet defiant as the repulsive Dudley “Booger” Dawson in the Revenge of the Nerds series. In the first film, he won an arm-wrestling match by picking his nose and grossing out his opponent. He followed up by snorting snow, in Better Off Dead, and displaying his extreme delicacy, in One Crazy Summer. Armstrong went on to roles in other loser-friendly movies like Bad Medicine, Van Wilder, and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.
Michael Cera
If anyone can make it desirable to be (or date) a nerd, it’s Michael Cera as Paulie Bleeker, the chronically uncomfortable baby daddy of the title character in Juno. In Superbad, McLovin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) may have out-geeked him point for point, but Cera’s Evan was still the nerd linchpin. He’s showing signs of inching toward romantic hero (Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist).
What will it take for A-list actresses to earn as much as actors?
The ninth-highest grossing movie of the year so far — with $153 million in U.S. box office sales — is “Sex and the City,” a film that features four leading women and a cursory supporting role for Mr. Big. The 11th highest grossing film is “Mamma Mia,” another estrogen fest, which has earned $144 million.
So with female-centric movies performing so well at the box office (between them, the two films have earned $980 million worldwide), why are women still earning so much less than their male counterparts?
Only two women make the list of the top 10 earning actors in Hollywood between June 2007 and June 2008. Cameron Diaz comes in fifth with $50 million for her work in solid romantic comedies like “What Happens in Vegas” and “The Holiday.” She also earned big for her voice work in the “Shrek” films as the far-from-helpless Princess Fiona.
But she earned a full $30 million less than Hollywood’s highest earner, Will Smith, who cashes mega paychecks for films like the post-apocalyptic “I Am Legend.” In the same time period, Smith earned $80 million.
Hollywood’s top earners
Will Smith — $80 million:
Smith earns big bucks for his action hero roles in films like Hancock and I Am Legend. But he’s also looking out for an Oscar. He was nominated for his work in Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness.
Johnny Depp — $72 million:
Depp rakes it in with his bizarre turn as drunken Captain Jack Sparrow in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Rumors are now swirling that he’ll earn $56 million upfront for a fourth installment.
Eddie Murphy — $55 million:
The reclusive comedian may have bombed with his most recent film, Meet Dave, but his overall track record for family-friendly fare is good enough for studios to keep producing his movies.
Mike Myers — $55 million:
His Shrek movies appeal to both kids and grown-ups, but his live-action films are a tougher sell. His summer movie The Love Guru earned a paltry $41 million worldwide.
Cameron Diaz — $50 million:
The top-earning woman on our list, Diaz turns out solid performances in romantic comedies like this year’s What Happens in Vegas. But she still earned $30 million less than top-earning actor Will Smith last year.
Leonardo DiCaprio — $45 million:
DiCaprio is the rare actor who can bring in large audiences for adult fare like Blood Diamond and The Aviator. He’s been nominated for three Oscars but has yet to win.
Bruce Willis — $41 million:
His action star days are mostly behind him, but Willis still managed to fill seats with his fourth turn as John McClane in last year’s Live Free or Die Hard.
Ben Stiller — $40 million:
Stiller’s Night at the Museum was a monster hit earning $575 million at the worldwide box office. No surprise that a sequel is in the works for next year.
Nicolas Cage — $38 million:
Cage’s films can be hit or miss but he still earns big paychecks. They pay off when a movie like National Treasure: Book of Secrets earns $457 million worldwide.
Keira Knightley — $32 million:
The second woman on our list, Knightley earns out from her role in the Pirate movies as Elizabeth Swan. When not appearing in the blockbusters, she sticks to more serious films like last year’s Atonement.
A coalition of disabilities groups is expected as early as Monday to call for a national boycott of the film “Tropic Thunder†because of what the groups consider the movie’s open ridicule of the intellectually disabled.
The film, a movie-industry spoof directed by Ben Stiller, is set for release on Wednesday by Paramount Pictures and its DreamWorks unit.
“Not only might it happen, it will happen,†Timothy P. Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, said of the expected push for a boycott. Speaking by phone, Mr. Shriver said he planned to be in Los Angeles with representatives of his group and others to picket the movie’s premiere on Monday evening in this city’s Westwood district.
A particular sore point has been the film’s repeated use of the term “retard†in referring to a character, Simple Jack, who is played by Mr. Stiller in a subplot about an actor who chases an Oscar by portraying a mindless dolt.
Mr. Shriver said that he had also begun to ask members of Congress for a resolution condemning what he called the movie’s “hate speech†and calling for stronger federal support of the intellectually disabled.
“The most disappointing thing, the most incredible thing, is that nobody caught it,†said Mr. Shriver, who, as a co-producer of the DreamWorks film “Amistad,†is no stranger to the studio. He spoke of what he described as the studio’s and the filmmakers’ blatant disregard for the disabled even as they stepped carefully around other potentially offensive references, notably in a story line that has Robert Downey Jr. playing a white actor who changes his skin color to play a black soldier.
In a statement on Sunday, Chip Sullivan, a DreamWorks spokesman, said the movie was “an R-rated comedy that satirizes Hollywood and its excesses and makes its point by featuring inappropriate and over-the-top characters in ridiculous situations.†Mr. Sullivan, in the statement, added that the film was not meant to disparage or harm people with disabilities and that DreamWorks expected to work closely with disability groups in the future. But, he said, “No changes or cuts to the film will be made.â€
Formal complaints about the content of films are not uncommon, but well-coordinated boycotts are fairly rare.
The groups involved said that they represented millions of members and associates. Perhaps the most striking use of the tactic involved “The Last Temptation of Christ,†released in 1988.
Religious groups that considered that movie’s depiction of Jesus blasphemous called for a boycott of companies owned by MCA, whose Universal unit made the film.
source: Nationwide ‘Thunder’ Boycott in the Works [ny times]
