Comic book heroes, gun-toting action stars, and a billion-dollar Barbie
For the actors who play them, their movies pull in hundreds of millions at the box office
But it wasn't always that way. It's hard to believe now, but Robert Downey Jr. was once the textbook definition of box office poison
While Downey shot to fame quickly in his career, his celebrity status was more for his extracurricular activities than his acting chops
Sure, he was nominated for an Academy Award for the title role in 1992's Chaplain
but he was more notorious for antics like passing out inside his neighbor's house
I was surprised to admit that when I was locked down in a California correctional facility
I said, wow, this is really not panning out for me. But hey, bad behavior in Hollywood is usually excused if your movies make money
Downey's films, however, did not. For the first 25 years of his career, the actor didn't make one movie that grossed more than $100 million
It was so bad, he even brought big stars like Mel Gibson down with him
The two co-starred in 1990's Air America, which became one of the biggest bombs of Gibson's career
Downey's turnaround came in the new millennium, thanks to director Jon Favreau going to bat for him as Tony Stark
It worked pretty well. Downey's inaugural Iron Man film grossed $585 million worldwide, and launched the most successful franchise ever
Ryan Reynolds' smart aleck charm made the Deadpool franchise a huge success. Yet, it was that same smugness that kept Reynolds from superstardom for the first 18 years of his career
Before Deadpool, Reynolds' biggest hits were as a supporting actor to major stars like Sandra Bullock in The Proposal and Denzel Washington in Safehouse
Whenever he went to bat by himself, he failed spectacularly, including the back-to-back flops Green Lantern and RIPD
Where am I? You're dead. This is a joke. Hilarious. Reynolds was well on his way to being a case of what could have been, until Deadpool shocked Hollywood with its $781 million global haul
Yet it not just Deadpool as Reynolds has parlayed that success to become a bankable draw on his own with recent hits like Free Guy and Pokemon Detective Pikachu Vin Diesel first major role may have been in Steven Spielberg Saving Private Ryan
but he followed that up with three misfires in a row. Diesel's career seemed to get into high
gear with the one-two punch of 2001's The Fast and the Furious and 2002's Triple X
thus establishing him as a major action movie star. But apparently he didn't really want to
do action movies, so he turned down Sure Thing sequels to both films
Diesel did have one hit with the 2005 family flick The Pacifier, but otherwise starred
in a string of duds like Babylon AD. Life's simple. Kill or be killed
In 2009, however, he returned to the Fast franchise with Fast and Furious
Diesel has wisely stayed in the family as patriarch Dominic Toretto ever since, helping
that series speed away with billions. He even returned to the Triple X franchise with 2017's Triple X Return of Xander Cage
Needless to say, Diesel is back to being bankable by staying in his lane as an action star
To his credit, Johnny Depp has gone down his own path for most of his career
resulting in iconic parts in Edward Scissorhands, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
and What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Yet his pre-Pirates of the Caribbean career didn't make
much money. His only film to make over $100 million during this period was Tim Burton's
Sleepy Hollow, which was released in 1999. Given his less-than-remarkable run, casting Depp in a
big-budget, would-be blockbuster about pirates seemed like a risk. Turns out, Depp was a discount
Pirates of the Caribbean, The Curse of the Black Pearl, Yo-Ho hoed its way to $654 million worldwide
in 2003. It was a massive sum that was dwarfed by the 2006 sequel, Pirates of the Caribbean
Dead Man's Chest. Captain Jack steered Depp away from his days as box office poison
Although his future with the Pirates franchise looks dead in the water after his recent personal
scandals. Before Christopher Nolan cast him as the title character in 2005's Batman Begins
Christian Bale was about as far from a movie star as one could be. He convincingly played
a billionaire in that effort but Bale pre Wayne filmography is a collection of underperformers and flops There were a couple of hits like his turn as Laurie in 1994 Little Women or voicing Thomas in 1995 Pocahontas But even his career role in American Psycho
was a flop in theaters. Bale was so unbankable that he became the only child actor to bomb in
a Steven Spielberg movie, 1987's Empire of the Sun. He even led the forgettable 1992 musical
Newsies, one of the few misfires in Disney's Renaissance era. Heck, even Batman Begins only
opened to $48 million, a bland start for a would-be blockbuster franchise. Quality won out
though, as Batman Begins ultimately made $356 million worldwide, building a bigger audience
for its billion-dollar sequels, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. Batman transformed
Bale into a bankable A-lister whose name could get a movie greenlit. In the right role, he continues
to be a reliable draw, starring in high-grossing movies like The Big Short, American Hustle
and Ford vs. Ferrari. Can you be a bankable movie star and box office poison at the same time
You can if you're Ben Affleck. Following the massive box office success of Good Will Hunting
Hollywood tried to make Affleck a movie star. Results were mixed. While he starred in the hugely
successful blockbusters Armageddon and Pearl Harbor, his choice to appear in head-scratchers
like Reindeer Games and Changing Lanes left us questioning Affleck's taste. The Wheels finally
came off with 2003's Geely, which made just $7 million worldwide. Affleck found redemption in
front of the camera by getting behind it, directing himself in some of his best movie roles to date
He directed his first big hit as a leading man in nearly a decade with 2010's The Town
then did it again with 2012's Argo. Argo went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture
completing one of the biggest comeback stories in Hollywood history. So is Affleck back as a bankable movie star
Sort of. While his time as Batman yielded mixed results, his only non-Batman hits have been 2014's Gone Girl
and 2016 The Accountant Otherwise Ben had a lot of busts Still he a long way from the dark days of Gigli so there that Actors careers don start off much stronger than Ryan Gosling
He made his big screen debut with a supporting role in 2000's Remember the Titans. By 2004
Gosling got above the title billing in romantic drama The Notebook, which made $115 million
worldwide. The film's huge box office haul was enough to make Gosling a movie star
Nor so Hollywood thought. Despite acclaimed performances in films like Drive and The Nice Guys
Gosling's box office performances over the next 10 years were pretty so-so
I think I'm invincible. It's the only thing that makes sense. I don't think I can die
There was 2016's La La Land, which earned $433 million. But there were also duds like Blade Runner 2049 in Only God Forgives
Basically, Gosling wasn't a movie star, but he convincingly played one. Gosling turned a corner with Barbie, which earned $1.4 billion worldwide
But he was back to his usual routine with 2023's The Fall Guy, which opened to a meager $27 million
although it eventually went on to earn more than $175 million. Like many modern movie stars, Gosling may not be the most bankable actor, but in the right role, he delivers
In Hollywood, being labeled as box office poison by critics can stick with you, whether it's fair or not
That's exactly what happened to Margot Robbie. with the New York Post calling her a phenomenal actress, who is drawn to box office flops like
flies to rotting meat. The truth, however, is more complicated. There's no denying that Robbie's
performance as Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad was a big reason the film earned $745 million
The appeal was short-lived, however, as her next two films as Harley didn't earn half that
Meanwhile, she took the brunt of the blame for Babylon and Amsterdam totally tanking in 2022
too, despite being part of an ensemble. Still, all of that went out the window with the massively
successful Barbie. Whatever her pre-Barbie results were, there's no denying that she's now a hugely
bankable star