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

He failed as a movie star!


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.





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Maybe people always just saw the teenager in him because of his height. That's why he couldn't be a convincing leading man.

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MJF is one of the biggest movie stars of all time. Certainly one of the most beloved. No one ever had a bad word to say about him.

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he’s still had a better career than Eric Stoltz

Fox has always been a B-list actor who basically got lucky with a franchise and struck down by a terrible illness. Kinda like Christopher Reeve.

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