Brad Pitt and Paramount Pictures have quite a bit in common these days. Both Pitt and Paramount have leaned into machismo to appeal to a wider male demographic; both are trying to salvage their reputations after a string of tumultuous events and bad press; and neither has put out a good movie in over a year. Is it really any wonder that their latest collaboration, the by-the-numbers survival film “Heart of the Beast,” was crushed by a seven-year-old superhero movie?
If you’ve kept up with the headlines, probably not. After David Ellison acquired Paramount and set his sights on Warner Bros., goodwill has been hard to come by for the studio. Likewise with Pitt, a string of abuse allegations from his ex-wife, Angelina Jolie, led to the actor favoring producing over acting, stepping behind the scenes to minimize the damage. Perhaps if viewers don’t see Pitt as much, they’ll forget the allegations and embrace him once more as a movie star. When “F1” did gangbusters numbers last summer, it looked as though that strategy might work.
But with “Heart of the Beast” generating a fraction of the response Pitt’s films did even less than a decade ago, it’s evident that his star power has taken a hit. Case in point: “Heart of the Beast” was bested in its opening weekend by “Avengers Endgame: Encore,” a theatrical rerelease of Marvel’s 2019 hit. Though the new edition includes a few minutes of new footage, it’s telling that a pre-pandemic slice of superhero action — that any viewer could easily throw on in their living room at the push of a button — stomped all over Pitt’s brand new film.
Whether the underperformance is the result of Pitt’s smug Hollywood persona, or the fact that “Heart of the Beast” — where Pitt and his trusty dog, both Army vets, must preposterously brave the elements — is just “Homeward Bound” for beer-drinking buddies, is hard to say exactly. But it’s telling that, unless a massively popular sport with a built-in audience is involved, the turnout for a Pitt movie is waning. Even the faux-prestige of 2022’s “Babylon” couldn’t sway viewers. If neither Oscar-bait nor dude movies are working for Pitt, perhaps he should consider that positioning himself onscreen as the picture of militarized masculinity might not appeal to those who read the news.
Read more
about the limits of star power
