The wafting smell of popcorn and the blaring trumpets of the 20th Century Fox title card are immediately recognizable as sensations of the moviegoing experience. But despite its familiarity, moviegoing is a fleeting pastime—or at least one that is temporarily on hold.
“I think unfortunately we are watching the death of movie theaters,” said Minnehaha senior Frederick Reding, a soon-to-be Northwestern University theater major and longtime moviegoer.
Since 2019, box office ticket sales are down nearly 40%, according to Statista. Expectations of a movie theater revival in 2025 were met with unrealized results, and Netflix’s recent purchase of Warner Bros. Studios is another casualty of the “straight-to-streaming” world. The underperforming box office has been deemed a product of modern content accessibility, a world where people say “I’ll just wait until it’s on Netflix.” But the widely ignored box office roadblock is a lack of movie stars.
“I think the idea of the ‘movie star’ is quickly becoming less and less popular. If you think of five-to-ten years ago, our movies were filled with Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey, and even The Rock. But now, with the dying art of the blockbuster, I feel like they are less crucial,” said Reding.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Katherine Hepburn and James Stewart were more recognizable than a next-door-neighbor, their “Hollywood” accents a staple of storytelling. In the 2020s, there is a dearth of generation-defining names.
If you’re looking for the prototypical moviestar, look no further than Tom Cruise—he sets the blueprint. Since the release of Top Gun (1986), Cruise has 37 films with leading acting credits—30 of them having surpassed $100 million at the worldwide box office.
The post-COVID film industry is still looking for its Tom Cruise. Few names, if any, have enough cachet to generate $100 million at the box office. Even Brad Pitt—one of the great movie stars of the 21st century—failed to reach $100 million on Babylon (2022), a large-scale commercial flop following the pandemic.
The industry’s ticket to financial success is locating a star who can garner the excitement of the youth, a generation that didn’t grow up watching Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt.
One candidate for the role of the modern moviestar is Timothee Chalamet; his desire to grab the torch as the next star, although polarizing, is undeniable.
“Chalamet has said before in speeches and in interviews that he’s inspired by greatness, and that he wants to be one of the greats,” said senior Elijah Jensen. ”And he actually backs that up. I’m just really drawn to that, so I like to watch all of his films.”
Chalamet just starred in Marty Supreme (2025), a heart-racing drama about table tennis prodigy Marty Mauser, which swiftly became critically adored and a box office hit—a combination that is more anomalous than common.
“I really liked [Marty Supreme],” Jensen said, “I went to see it five times.”
While Marty Supreme’s popularity is a glimmer of hope for the moviegoing industry, its success required promotion that is atypical of traditional film marketing.
“The marketing behind the movie was awesome and brilliant, with Chalamet having global superstars like Lamine Yamal, Anthony Edwards, the Biebers, and Tom Brady advertise,” said Jensen.
Just to surpass $118 million at the box office, NBA courts had “Marty Supreme” on their surface, the Las Vegas sphere was an orange ping pong ball, and world famous celebrities—like the aforementioned Anthony Edwards and Tom Brady—posted pictures sporting a Marty Supreme jacket. So, the film’s success cannot be entirely attributed to Chalamet’s stardom.
There is also an argument to be made that movie stars are just obsolete, and efforts like Chalamet’s are futile.
“I don’t think the problem is the actors, but the films being made. Modern movies don’t value their stars like they used to,” said senior Patrick Linder.
Filling seats is difficult, especially for an increasingly expensive $20 ticket. The movies that find the most success are high-budget franchise films, particularly Marvel or DC. Moviegoers are rarely going for the actors on the poster, but instead they’re at the kiosk because they want to see the latest installment of an established series.
But the film industry cannot be supported by franchise blockbusters; the success of independent or arthouse films like Marty Supreme is imperative for the moviegoing business to maintain its diverse range of entertainment quality and options.
“It’s up to us to keep watching movies in theaters to keep them alive,” said Reding.
The moviegoing industry is trapped in quicksand, sinking into a mass of franchise reliance and limited attendance, but maybe a hero can help lift it up—ideally another Tom Cruise.