Anne Hathaway is one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, but a recent release of hers doing poorly at the box office shows that just having star power is not enough nowadays.
What has Anne Hathaway’s latest movie shown us?
Hathaway is set up to have a big 2026, where she’ll star in a number of high-profile films like The Odyssey, The End of Oak Street, The Devil Wears Prada 2, and Verity. She kicked off her 2026 this month, starring opposite Michaela Cole in A24’s latest movie Mother Mary. While the marketing was strong for the movie, and reviews are mostly divisive, the box office results for the film are not great.
To date, Mother Mary has made just $2 million, and while A24 films are not known for their gigantic box office returns, the fact that an Anne Hathaway-led film is already seeing its showtimes shrink is a bit surprising. However, the results point to the modern day of movies, and show that simply having “star power” is no longer enough to drive people to seeing a movie. In past generations, a movie having a huge actor or actress tied to it was generally enough to guarantee at least a sizable amount of people watching the movie.
However, due to both the general decline in movie visits as well as the rise of influencer fame across social media, that no longer seems to be the case. Instead, companies rely much more on trendy marketing and buzz to generate hype for their movie. Look no further to another A24 hit, Marty Supreme, as a prime example. The film was led by a mega star in Timothée Chalamet, but still relied on constant, unique marketing for the film, especially due to its nature as an original IP with no name recognition. While companies like A24 and Neon are at the forefront of advertising in this way, we’re beginning to see traditional companies do it, too.
Of course, not every movie is like this. Some films, like Hathaway’s upcoming The Devil Wears Prada 2 or The Odyssey, will succeed without needing to go to more viral forms of marketing. Some stars, like Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and others, also still have such a high level of fame that people will go to see movies solely because of them. As we move forward in the new era, though, it seems like big stars appearing in original movies no longer guarantee a box office draw.