http://variety.com/2015/film/news/from-the-judge-to-blended-movie-stars-dimmed-in-2014-1201392188/ Interesting article about the film industry and how CGI/action heroes are possibly the main draw to watch a film instead of the actors themselves. And yeah, it mentions Transformers franchise.
I think AOE was successful less because of "Hey Mark Whalberg is this film" or even "Hey the Autobots are characters in this film" and more because of "Hey, China is in this film a lot and doesn't look bad".
I don't care who is in a movie as long as I get a quality movie. I saw Captain America because I wanted to see Captain America. I saw X-men because I wanted to see the X-men. I saw Guardians of the Galaxy because it looked like fun movie. I saw Transformers because it had Transformers in it. The actors in these movies are not usually a draw for me to watch the movie. I'm not watching Dawn of the Planet of the Apes for Jason Clarke or The Hobbit for Martin Freeman or Ian Mckellen even though they are all fine actors. This usually only applies to smaller movies for me. I did watch Mud for Matthew McConaughey. Star power can make me more curious and excited to see a big budget movie though. I was already looking forward to Doctor Strange, but I am now even more excited for it with Cumberbatch in the lead role.
Hollywood is hardpressed to let go of its old ways. We've seen it enough times with the sequelitis - aka, 'it's simple, it works, keep doing it.' Though I do think they need to start weaning themselves off that overpriced actors list bit.
I dunno... Star power might help draw people in but it's a good movie that generates the revenue. Who was the star power that drew audiences for TF07? Shia, Fox, Spielberg or Bay?
I have to agree that stardom still is very important. A lot of movies don't do so well because they aren't very interesting. Great films in my opinion involves good acting, story and a connection to the audience. Malifecent was a good example used in the article of what makes a film do good iin the box office. Not only is Angelina Jolie talented but the retelling of story was unique. For Transformers Mark Whalberg had a lot to do with how well the movie did. Lockdown and Optimus definitely stole the show on the big screen. Bumblebeeand the rest of the transformers helped out the huge box office numbers. There was more robot screen time in Aoe compared to it's predecessors. For TF5 to be successful I would imagine even more robot screen time, and of course the actors. I would imagine if the story continues to take place on earth it might hurt the film.
