Robert Jackman

Hollywood loves to self mythologise

  • From Spectator Life
Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe in Blonde (Netflix)

Hollywood can appear self-satisfied and insular at the best of times, but it’s been a rough few months even by Tinseltown standards. Judging by the slew of trailers that have dropped in recent weeks, this season in cinema land will centre on only one thing: biopics. From Madonna and Marilyn Monroe to Elvis (and even Hillary Rodham Clinton) it’s time for a barrage of films in which big stars play bigger stars – in return for your adoration. 

Hollywood’s fixation on global fame might not be entirely new – Ben Kingsley’s turn in Gandhi is about to reach its 40th birthday, incidentally – but there’s no getting away from the fact that it has stepped up a gear in recent years. Rather than tell stories about noble historic figures, today’s biopics prefer to play out like glorified jukebox musicals – at least if recent efforts like Rocketman and Elvis are anything to go by.

Why is Hollywood so toto for films about celebrity? Is it a sign of status anxiety now that TV is hot on its heels (and luring in its biggest stars)? The answer may be a lot more banal: these films make money. Take Bohemian Rhapsody. Made on a modest budget of $55m, the film went on to generate north of $900m in revenue. That’s a whopping 1500 per cent return – far higher (in percentage terms) than your average CGI-heavy superhero film. Even Rupert Goold’s Judy (a biopic about Judy Garland) took four times its budget.


These returns won’t have surprised Hollywood executives, who have long worked out that – when it comes to making profitable films – there is nothing riskier than new ideas. Look at the biggest grossing films of the last few years and you’ll struggle to find any that are what film geeks called ‘original IP’ – that is, films that aren’t part of an existing franchise or previous hits.

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