Why is it, whenever a actor wins a Academy Award for best actor(tress), their first movie right after flops?

Question

is it a curse?

examples:
Charlize Theron- Aeon Flux
Halley Berry- Cat Woman
Jamie Foxx- Stealth

Answer 1

Well, the movie is usually made or almost made by the time they win their award. How do top an Oscar? And you missed a big one with Gwyneth Paltrow as well. I think the thing that makes the most sense is that they have to make a living, and great roles often don't come along, and that sometimes they just make really bad decisions - I wouldn't want to be a younger actor winning an Oscar - everything they do is measured after that. How can they possibly measure up.

Answer 2

It's not universally true, but one reason is that they often have a not-particularly-good movie already in the can when the Oscars are awarded. That's a movie that they chose not to release because they didn't think it was going to fare very well, based on test audiences.

After the actor wins the Oscar, they release that not-so-great movie, hoping that with advertisements saying "Starring Oscar winner X", the film might make money. Otherwise it would have just sat on the shelf forever.

Remember: nearly every actor makes lousy movies from time to time. It's hard to tell from the script whether it's going to be a good film or not. Sometimes it's a good script that's butchered by lousing editing, directing, cinematography, music, etc. Sometimes is a lousy script with a part that the actor thinks will be fun, or they were asked by a friend to do as a favor, or the director is fun to work for. (Robert Altman always got extraordinary casts for what were often mediocre scripts.)

And sometimes an actor just has lousy judgment. Sean Connery passed up Gandalf to be in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Answer 3

No, it is simply that they now can put "Academy award winner" in front of their name, and then make about twice as much, regardless of what movie they do. Once already having been awarded the highest honour in acting, they can't continue their ascent, but they then have the opportunity to make tons of cash. Maybe it's even not about the money, maybe they just like the scripts for these "flops" but would have been too ashamed before the were vaulted into the acting elite. They really have more freedom than before, and so even if their next movie flops they're still 1. Making a load of money 2. Everyone will just forget it and still remember them for "that other movie they were in"...

Answer 4

haha.
You have a point.
I don't really think it's a trend or a real reason why that happened to those actors, but it definetly is a coincidence.