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Don't tell Matty

Kim Hollis: We've been talking about where people stand in terms of their movie stardom. Outside of the Ocean's and Bourne series, do you think that Matt Damon is a significant movie draw?

Michael Lynderey: Damon may be as much of a draw as Leonardo DiCaprio, somebody who boosts up the prospects of a particular kind of project. But it's their choice in films that really shows the difference between the two - most of the time, DiCaprio picks awards-bait projects that also have a strong potential for box office, while Damon's a little less picky when it comes to that latter criteria. Maybe the upcoming True Grit will change that, but Damon's last three movies were period pieces (technically speaking, that's what they were) that pulled in/will pull in less than $40 million a pop, and that's either bad luck or a clear trend.

Reagen Sulewski: I think Damon is probably the most versatile of the newer group of stars (though he's 39 and can't really claim to be "newer" all that much longer, baby face aside). Who else are you going to get to play a rugby star and a nebbishy agribusiness executive within the same year? There's quite a few actors you'd get to play in Invictus, of course, but few that could combine the two roles.





David Mumpower: In the days that followed The Bourne Ultimatum, I expected Damon to become one of the biggest box office draws in the world. Instead, he has chosen some quirky titles in The Informant, Invictus and Green Zone. Rather than absolve him of the blame for the fact that all of them fall in the $30-$40 million range domestically, I look at all of these titles and wonder why they didn't do better. Invictus in particular seemed like a huge hit in the making due to its inspirational sports story theme. Instead, people heard "African politics" and ran away screaming. Similarly, Green Zone is a title that could have been a hit yet we're now left trying to explain why it failed. Damon needs the True Grit re-make to be less artistic and more lucrative.

Kim Hollis: I think people like him and his name above the title means something (how poorly would Green Zone have done without him?), but I don't know that he's the type of star who necessarily pushes you across a big box office threshold. His biggest hits have been franchise films for the most part. Still, with a recent Academy Award nomination, he's getting good attention and has a pretty interesting year in the offing with True Grit, The Adjustment Bureau and another Clint Eastwood film in Hereafter all coming up (there's also Margaret if it ever gets a release date).

Jason Lee: The problem for me is that Damon is more thought of as an action star than an actor's actor. I think the performances of films like Invictus and The Informant! demonstrate that people aren't going to come out in droves to see him in a serious role, whereas he can lend some real star power to blockbusters like The Departed and the Bourne series.

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