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The fact is, the most powerful box office stars continue to be the same ones who dominated in 1994 (actors with names like Tom and...Tom). With two possible exceptions, Hollywood hasn't made a major new discovery in a decade (those would be Russell Crowe, who turned 40 last April, and Will Smith, age 35). There have been lots of extraordinary performances, to be sure (from Nicole, Renée, and Jude, to name a few), but that just means there are plenty of great young actors at the moment, not true stars, at least not by any traditional definition of the term.
None of these kids, for instance, have shown that they can open a movie the way Hanks usually can (except maybe Adam Sandler, but then comedians only open comedies -- see Mike Myers and Jim Carrey). None have demonstrated the range to zigzag from drama to action to romance the way Cruise continues to. Certainly none have established that they can galvanize a global audience across a multitude of cultures and demographics -- the way Julia Roberts has been doing since she was in her 20s -- and deliver them to theaters for film after film (at least not without playing a hobbit, a wizard, or an arachnid-enhanced superhero). Frankly, Hollywood just isn't supersizing movie stars the way it used to.
''The thing that's up for debate is, Is it just a cycle or has something changed about the way movies are made?'' asks screenwriter Dean Georgaris (''The Manchurian Candidate,'' ''Mission: Impossible 3''). ''It's something that writers and producers talk about. Studio execs talk about it. Directors talk about it. Where are the movie stars?''
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