Hollywood Is Relying on Star Power. NewsWire

NewsWire: 1/22/22

• Hollywood is stuffing movies with as many big stars as it can manage. Faced with falling ticket sales, producers are leaning on star power as an insurance policy. (The New York Times)
• NH: If you watched Spider-Man: No Way Home, you undoubtedly noticed its star-studded cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, Jamie Foxx, and Willem Dafoe. While that may seem like a lot of A-listers for one film, it’s not out of the ordinary. 
• Hollywood producers are increasingly casting their movies with multiple big-name celebrities. Netflix’s Don’t Look Up featured everyone from Meryl Streep to Ariana Grande. And the cast of Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley has a total of 22 previous Oscar nominations between them. 
• So what’s driving this trend? Producers are desperate for eyeballs. Moviegoers are still wary of theaters. In 2021, box office revenue was down almost -60% from 2019. And the number of streaming services has exploded, leading to an oversaturation of content. Packing movies with stars is one of the few ways to get people's attention.
• Of course, these celebrities come at a hefty price. And that leaves less money for production. But who needs a fancy set when Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio are in the same scene?

Did You Know?

• Volunteering Needs a Boost. After dipping sharply in 2020, charitable donations have bounced back to pre-pandemic levels. This is according to a new Gallup poll. Fully 81% of Americans say they donated money to a religious or other charitable organization in the past year, compared to 73% who said the same in 2020. The increase in donations has come from all income brackets. However, not all types of donations have recovered equally: While donations to secular organizations are back to where they were pre-pandemic, donations to religious organizations are not. Volunteer activity also dropped in 2020, but has not experienced the same rebound as charitable donations. In fact, it fell even further in 2021, from 58% to 56%. The share of Americans who volunteered last year was last this low during the Great Recession. And with concerns about Covid showing no signs of slowing, volunteering numbers are likely to remain down for the foreseeable future.