MovieChat Forums > Michael J. Fox Discussion > He failed as a movie star!

He failed as a movie star!

posted a year ago by Ticketsplease (4024)
42 replies | jump to latest

Don't get me wrong, I love the guy (well, sorta), but he blew his shot at hollywood.

Let's dissect where it all went wrong.

1. Back To The Future was amazing. He followed this up with Teen Wolf. Not great but people loved it nonetheless. So far so good, what's next, hopefully something more like Back To The Future, right?

2. Light of Day, 1987. The movie wasn't a flop but it was not what audiences wanted. A drama about some musicians!

3. The Secret of My Success - 1987 - Finally, a movie audiences enjoyed! A box office hit! What's next? You learned the lesson of Light of Day, right?

4. Bright Lights, Big City - 1988 - A flop. I won't even get into how big a flop this was. They lost a lot of money.

5. Casualties of War - 1989 - It did okay, commercially, critically, but Fox was WAY off brand with this one. Nobody wants to see Marty McFly or Alex Keaton in some depressing Vietnam war movie.

6. Back To The Future II - 1989 and Back To The Future III 1990 - Yes! He's back on brand! Two huge movies to satisfy his fans. He can still salvage his career.

7. The Hard Way - 1991 - A buddy cop movie with James Woods? Who thought audiences would want to see this tired format in 1991? Wasn't Beverly Hills Cop from 1985? A flop

8. Doc Hollywood - 1991 - A flop. Not a horrible flop, it may have broken even, but it wasn't exactly making backers want to throw money his way anytime soon.

9. Life With Mickey - 1993 - The death of his film career. The movie is basically unheard of because nobody saw it (debuted at number 7 at the box office) and never got shown on TV. It apparently made 12 million, which I'm guessing wouldn't even cover the budget.

Unfortunately for his backers, they still had a movie of his to promote coming out at the end of 1993.

10. For Love or Money - 1993. This flopped so hard we shouldn't even be discussing it. Okay, let's dissect. Critics hated it. It only made 11 million, less than Life With Mickey, which is hard to believe, but true.

So what was his mistakes? 1, not sticking to his brand. Comedy. Fun stuff. Action. Adventure.

He really needed another franchise vehicle to attach himself to. Perhaps instead of teaming up with James Woods he should have teamed up with Maculay Culkin or John Candy or someone who would also bring in the audiences and the laughs.

He claims that he turned down Ghosts 1990, and all I can say is THANK GOD, because Patrick Swayze brought the sexuality to that role that sealed the chemistry of a love story between a grieving woman and a ghost.

So that's his career in a nutshell. He took some detours, was given a few second chances, but failed to capitalize on his fame and team up with other comedians to really rake in the cash.

[–] Cognoscente (2662) a year ago

1. Back To The Future was amazing. He followed this up with Teen Wolf.

Teen Wolf was made before BTTF.

[–] Ticketsplease (4024) a year ago

Made perhaps. Released, no.

Teen Wolf came out in August 1985.
Back to the future came out in July.

[–] elmacho (983) a year ago

The internet says Doc Hollywood debuted at number 1. Had a budget of $20,000,000 and made $54,000,000. #20 for the year. Any studio would take double their money on a movie. If you watch his documentary on Apple you will see that his health problems started becoming a problem a few years later and that is why he went back to TV with Spin City. I think that 99.99% of actors would sign up for his "failed" career.

[–] pioneergrrrl (2411) a year ago

Ditto

the original poster is just jealous that they lack a fraction of that money and/or fame.

Fox also wasn't one of those actors who made demands for a bigger dressing room etc when he was on Family Ties and also doing movies.

[–] Ticketsplease (4024) a year ago

It flopped in the sense that it wasn't a huge hit. It was in the 'break even' / 'small profit' zone.

[–] Luffy (1236) a year ago

He had a decent career. I was a huge fan of the BTTF trilogy. He had some success on TV. I was surprised by his relatively youthful appearance on Mars Attacks. Another flop. But Michael J. Fox was simply well liked and had a lot of charisma. Even if he had a bad career, that does not change.

[–] Levtones (593) a year ago

The Hard Way was great.

"Why don't you go tie your dick in a knot?!"

[–] holly61 (970) a year ago

He really did. His career went badly even before his diagnosis. After Back to the future he had a flop after a flop.

The reason:

He wasn't that talented, wasn't that good looking and picked bad scripts. Parkinson's was just the final nail in the coffin.

[–] punkrockgirl (1270) a year ago

I'd say he did pretty well for himself considering his condition. He maintained a steady career up until he decided to leave Spin City because his disease was weighing him down.

[–] maximmm (3344) a year ago

well - he did switch to TV stuff and apparently he was doing well in that
as far as films are concerned though.... yeah, he was in death spiral at the end of his film career
At the end of the day - his acting in comedies was decent - the question is, how many decent scripts did he have coming in?
I'd hate to be an actor right now, for example - where 99.9 percent of scripts are utter shite. And the good scripts will never get funded because they aren't woke enough. TV series are still doing OK

[–] moviechatterer (15783) a year ago

wow, never even heard of 9 & 10

[–] UMAD (655) 9 months ago

so you probably think james gandolfii and the rest of the sopranos actors also "failed" because they dident started in alot of movies?

lol. what a lousy take

do you idiot even have a clue how much fucking money even the smallest actors get? one movie can settle you for life. none of them really failed you dumb fuck. they are all rich as shit