Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence have a new movie out. You’d think the picture would have gotten more publicity, what with Ms. Lawrence rounding home plate on The Hunger Games franchise and Mr. Cooper cementing his status as a major new-era movie star with American Sniper. Lawrence has earned three Oscar nominations since 2011, winning once for The Silver Linings Playbook. The “other guy on Alias” is on a roll of late, having earned three straight Oscar nominations, including the Best Actor nod for the Clint Eastwood drama. To the extent that we have “ new movie stars” in this day-and-age, Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper would be among the biggest in the club. Even their third onscreen reunion wasn’t enough to get Susanne Bier’s Serena into theaters. The period picture drama, long-delayed and critically dismissed, debuted on Video on Demand this Tuesday. Without overly singing its praises, I can personally say that it’s not that bad. It is however a shining example of the diminishing value of star power and the increasing importance of concept and brand.
I have said a million times that star power is important in order to cement the sale for an otherwise appealing property or brand, if only to be able to go on talk shows and do magazine interviews to plug the film to general moviegoers. But we may well have reached the point where star power by itself is of little-to-no-use in terms of theatrical films beyond said added value. The VOD market, which has exploded over the last three years, has become something of an under-the-radar distribution network that traffics in not-so-much “films that aren’t good enough for theaters” but rather films that don’t necessarily scream “Big Budget Popcorn Cinema!” And Serena is as precise an example of this new phenomenon as I can recall. The film stars two of today’s biggest movie stars. Yet it is not a popcorn blockbuster and/or a potential franchise starter, nor is it anywhere near good enough to be considered year-end awards bait, so thus it’s not commercial enough to justify multiplex space.
It’s a 1930′s-set period picture concerning a ruthless timber baron and his equally ruthless wife as they attempt to keep their legally-questionable operations afloat amid attempted government intervention. It is basically just an old-fashioned character drama, with an inconsistent narrative but awfully strong performances amid authentic period locations. It is tempting to say that the film is so bad that even the allure of Lawrence and Cooper united together again wasn’t enough to keep it from skipping American theaters. The truth is that it’s not going to theaters because it’s just a movie, which isn’t enough in today’s tentpole environment even with two very big movie stars at the peak of their fame. In the current Hollywood, star power is merely an added value element. Just because a given actor can help open a major commercial venture doesn’t mean they mean all that much outside of the realm of big-budget popcorn cinema.
Just because Brad Pitt could open World War Z for Paramount/Viacom Inc. doesn’t mean he could open Killing Them Softly for Weinstein Company. Johnny Depp will open Walt Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales just fine but couldn’t open Transcendence (Warner Bros./Time Warner) or Mortdecai (Lions Gate Entertainment). Robert Downey Jr. cashed in his Marvel capital with The Judge for Warner Bros., the kind of film that would have been a wholly commercial star vehicle in the 1990′s, but the film couldn’t reach $50m. Even Bradley Cooper couldn’t open The Words back in 2012. That’s not unusual per-se. After all, Jodie Foster in Contact was worth more than Jodie Foster in Nell back in the day. And Denzel Washington in Sony’s The Equalizer is worth a lot more than Denzel Washington in Fox Searchlight’s Antwone Fisher. Yet said star power used to be enough to at least get the film(s) into a theater near you.
As I watched Serena the other day, I realized that the only thing that prevented the film from being picked up by a major theatrical distributor was everything it wasn’t. It wasn’t a franchise sequel, it wasn’t an animated feature, it wasn’t a big-budget spectacle, and it wasn’t a year-end Oscar bait film. It was just a character drama, which in today’s multiplex environment isn’t enough to merit the expense of distributing and marketing a mainstream multiplex release even with two out-and-out movie stars. Star power is important, to be sure. It is the ultimate added-value element and it is what separates Oz: The Great and Powerful from Jack the Giant Slayer. And star+concept is the most potent combination of all. But current star power no longer means you can always get your “one for me” picture into mainstream theaters and treated as a big deal, specifically if the “one for me” project only has your face on the poster to sell it.
I am not here to decry Hollywood for not bringing Serena to theaters. I am here to somewhat bemoan the notion that they were absolutely right to not pick it up. Here’s the good news: Serena will still be able to be seen by every single American who wants to see it, provided they possess a credit card and an Internet connection. In fact, by virtue of going VOD, it will be immediately available in a high quality presentation at a moment’s notice for anyone who wants to check it out. And I would recommend doing so. It’s a gorgeous picture and I can see where the alleged $25 million budget went. And while the first half is superior the second half, if only because the second half tries to tell a whole movie’s worth of story and thus feels rushed, it is worthwhile to seeing Lawrence and Cooper delivering somewhat unconventional character turns, as they both relish the opportunity to not abide by the laws of mainstream “likeability.”
There was a time when going straight-to-VHS, straight-to-DVD, or straight-to-cable was a badge of dishonor, especially for major movie stars. Yet with the multiplexes being filled with big-scale commercial projects, often in the form of fantasy franchises or bawdy mainstream comedies, we’re getting to the point where going the Video On Demand route is a badge of honor. The fate of Serena is a testament to the limits of even top-tier star power. Shailene Woodley’s successes with Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars couldn’t magically make White Bird in a Blizzard into a more commercial venture. And Jennifer Lawrence reteaming with Bradley Cooper couldn’t turn Serena into the kind of film that mainstream audiences flocked to see in theaters. The irony of course is that Serena is now a big fish in a small VOD pond precisely because of the star power that couldn’t quite get it into multiplexes. I liked Serena enough to offer a token recommendation. But I am not remotely surprised as to its ultimate commercial fate.
Also on Forbes:
Celeb 2014: Most Powerful Actresses
If you like what you’re reading, follow @ScottMendelson on Twitter, and “like” The Ticket Booth on Facebook. Also, check out my archives for older work HERE.