What Happened to the Celebrities?

Something has changed in the culture

Nike stock has been falling for almost four years. It never recovered from the pandemic—the company got sicker as people got healthier.

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Not long ago, Nike was invulnerable. How could a company with more celebrity endorsements than any other consumer brand in the world ever lose it glamor?

But celebrity endorsements don’t help anymore. Maybe they even hurt.

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The same is true of other companies linked to celebrities. Consider the case of Disney—which has also suffered a huge share price collapse during those same four years.

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Take a look now at Warner Bros. Discovery, another celebrity-driven business.

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Here’s the stock chart for AMC Entertainment during this same period—and it’s even uglier.

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What happened to celebrities after 2021? Are they still under lockdown? Did the President slap a tariff on them? Did I miss the memo?

Let’s face it, it’s been a bad four years for superstars. And you can measure the collapse in many ways—from declining ratings for award shows to lackluster ticket sales for big budget films.

Even home prices in Hollywood are falling.

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Is there a reason?

Many of you will tell me this is easy to explain—it’s another example of right-wing backlash. The MAGA crowd is Bud-Lighting Hollywood, just like they’re torching Washington, D.C.

But I don’t see this as a political issue—as I’ll explain below.

For a start, Democrats are actually more likely than Republicans to hold “negative opinions” about celebrity activism—55% admit to it. But the larger reality is that no demographic group in America has any deep love for Hollywood stars right now.

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During the last four years, celebrities have been attacked on all sides—for

• Me-too violations

• Insensitive tweets

• Political activism

• Criminal charges of all sorts

• Out-of-touch lavish lifestyles

• Epstein client list rumors

• and all sorts of other real or supposed infractions

It’s revealing that the most watched Oscar moment in recent years involved a movie star jumping on stage and slapping another movie star. If you want to sum up the whole Hollywood malaise in a single moment, this is it.

Even movie stars hate movie stars.

The movies themselves don’t generate half as much interest. This year’s Oscar-winning Best Picture Anora only opened in 6 theaters on initial release, and never generated more than $2.5 million in its best week.

“Brands now embrace micro-influencers, not Hollywood superstars. The meek really have inherited the earth.”

In recent months, Hollywood stars have been invisible in the most popular films—last year’s top ten were mostly animated features. And rest of the list was filled with monsters (Godzilla, King Kong, sandworms, etc.) or superheroes in masks or heavy makeup.

Not long ago, fans went to the movies to look at glamorous stars. Not anymore—in 2024, Sonic the Hedgehog was a bigger draw than Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks or Margot Robbie or Leonardo DiCaprio.