Special effects prove to be bigger money-makers than even the most popular movie stars

By Ellie Seta

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Prior to the 21st century, movie stars such as Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks dominated the film industry. But then in 1997, a phenomenon known as “Titanic” came crashing into the movie business, single-handedly revolutionizing the way future movies would be created. This new emphasis on special effects created a tremendous buzz and resulted in almost $1.8 billion in gross sales in the worldwide box office. In the last decade, digital spectacles have become a much larger draw than any of the famous actors and actresses who previously ruled the box office.In recent weeks, James Cameron’s second digital masterpiece, “Avatar” did the unthinkable as it shattered previous box office record “Titanic,” raking in $2,215,470,349 and counting. This movie, like “Titanic” relies heavily on the impressive animation of the “Avatar” world. Where a majority of a film’s budget and focus used to be awarded to the stars, now the modern day movie star is beginning to fall to the wayside. The top 10 highest grossing movies of all time, in fact, include movies that are focused around elaborate digital imagery and effects. While some of these movies do include well-known movie stars including Johnny Depp in “Pirates of the Caribbean” and Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight,” the sheer spectacle of these movies proves to be the source of its success.

This obvious trend of digital spectacle, which has become the biggest draw for movie-goers, is something quite unique to this decade. During the golden age of the film industry, between the years of 1929 and 1949, the stars of the silver screen served as muses for directors and writers. Just featuring their names on the marquees would cause millions of Americans to flock to the movies, regardless of what the actual movie was about. In fact, according to the book American Cinema Culture, an unbelievable 83 million Americans went to the movies each week, proving that the movie stars themselves do have the capability to draw large crowds to the theaters.

While most of the highest grossing movies include some form of computer graphics and effects it is not always necessary for success. Some of the most successful movies of 2010 including, “Up in the Air, “ “The Blind Side” and the indie hit “(500) Days of Summer,” all relied heavily on the content of the screenplay and the development of its characters.

Spearheading this movement of animated feature has been without a doubt the Pixar production company who was behind such instant animated classics as “Finding Nemo,” “Ratatouille” and “Up.” The Pixar animation studios, which began in 1995 with “Toy Story,” has grossed over $5 billion in combined box office sales in the past 15 years. Most recently their animated children’s movie “Up” has been nominated for Academy Awards in both the Best Picture and Best Animated Feature category.

While the technological efforts of producers and special effects designers have resulted in some incredible movies over the past decade, it is somewhat sad to see some of the greatest actors of our time being replaced with animated fish and aliens.