Cincy Star George Clooney: He's Bombing At The Box Office

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Get ready for a spate of movieola melodramas in the news and Hollywood 'zene pages about George Clooney's star beginning to dim. It has already started in Slate, the online mag, which notes that Clooney's films aren't connecting with audiences. His latest flick Michael Clayton is about corporate lawyering and unsavory ethics. It was praised by critics but had a relatively weak $10 million opening last weekend.

Clooney likes to make films about issues that turn on questions of social responsibility. He grew up in the Cincinnati-area where his dad, Nick, was a broadcaster, deejay and local TV news anchorman. Nick now writes a column for the Cincinnati Post. Slate's Hollywoodland correspondent Kim Masters writes today that there are several theories about George Clooney's failure to sell tickets:

"Clooney is very popular in Hollywood, but he cannot be counted on to open a movie. It's happened for Ocean's 11-12-13, but when you're in a movie with Matt Damon and Brad Pitt, you don't get bragging rights. There was The Perfect Storm, but that kind of co-starred the wave."

Master's quotes unnamed Hollywood insiders identified only as a top producer and a former studio chief saying that Clooney just doesn't have the star power to put fannies in the seats.

"Who can be counted on to open a move these days? Maybe Will Smith. Maybe Adam Sandler in a comedy . . . The days are gone when you could book Julia Roberts into Dying Young -- 'a movie that nobody wants to see' -- and watch the audience line up. So, if you can't count on selling the star, he says, you better sell an idea. That didn't happen with Michael Clayton."