Eh, not bad. Good to see big movie starts on the screen though.

http://www.boffo.com/2011/03/watch-t...ry-crowne.html

This would have been guaranteed to be huge 10 years ago, when star power (for those whose name isn't Will Smith) actually meant bankability!

Not necessarily: see The Mexican's modest gross.

Though Brad Pitt wasn't - and has never been - a Tom-Hanks-in-his-prime level box office draw.

No, he most certainly wasn't.

Tom Hanks was pure box office gold up until "The Ladykillers" in 2004 (with his uninterrupted streak of $100m+ films -- which meant more back then). Brad was always more of a "Hollywood star" than a bankable draw.

It wasn't uninterrupted.

His 100M streak that began with A League of Their Own in 1992 was interrupted by Philadelphia (though at 70M+ it came close and being the 1st major "gay" studio film, that was quite a feat) and That Thing You Do.

Still, his League of Their Own/Sleepless In Seattle/Philadelphia (Oscar)/Forrest Gump (Oscar)/Apollo 13 (Oscar nom)/Saving Private Ryan (Oscar nom)/Cast Away (Oscar nom) streak of monster hits is totally unparalleled. Will Smith could never.

I think Road to Perdition was the beginning of the end of his box office God days.

Well, that's what I meant -- that streak that amazingly lasted from 1994 until 2004. He obviously had a lot films in the beginning of his career that weren't that big, either.

RTP probably was the first sign of his bank slipping, but it was a harder sell for a summer release, and its doubtful anyone else would have gotten a film like that to cross $100m, if ever so slightly.

Might have done better with a traditional December Oscar release, though. Of course he had CMIYC that December, which was a big hit, too, after Spielberg's draw had waned a bit with A.I./Minority Report.

1996: That Thing You Do
Gross: $25,857,416

That doesn't really count, though. He had a comparatively bit role. Usually the streaks are meant to take leading roles into account only. Check box office prognosticators' analyses from the late 90s. It's like why/how we ignore Gaga's flop features from her discography record streak.

^Fair enough.