Have A-list actors become unnecessary?

This is another question I hear a lot, and the answer is no! Certainly not!

Stars are a necessary expense because foreign licensing is dependent on them. If you know the genre of a movie, the budget, and who the top four stars are, you can literally compute how much you're going to make from overseas distributors to at least one significant figure. Agents and managers know the amount of money each star is work to overseas distributors - it's called the star's "pull".

Foreign licensing and pre-sales have been a key part of film financing for decades. Until that changes, A-list stars will continue to be relevant to Hollywood.

Obviously, I acknowledge that a movie can succeed without them. At the same time, they mitigate a movie's financial risk partially because everyone agrees that they mitigate a movie's risk, which makes everyone more willing to jump on board.

In the case of a film like Sam Bailey, our financing is not dependent on foreign money and things get a lot more gray. Yes, we want to succeed in foreign markets. At the same time, the effort our cast is putting into publicising the movie domestically is what makes a successful theatrical release in the US possible. In the long term, an audience here in the States is worth more to us than some easy money at the film markets. Besides, a successful US box office means foreign distributors will have to pay us more. Because of the business model we're using, having A-list stars isn't as important as having our cast work together on the grassroots level.

At the same time, most films aren't reliant on that kind of teamwork. Frankly, most people don't want to work that hard. Until changes in the foreign markets or film's prevailing financing models force a major paradigm shift, star power will continue to shine as a driving force in film.

Furthermore, the media will keep the public's attention focused on the stars for as long as they continue to drive the business of moviemaking.

If stars are necessary to your business, why not make the most of them?