Channing Tatum Is The Only New Movie Star To Emerge In The Past Five Years

Everyone's got their own definition of a movie star, and as with anything else, it all depends on when you grew up. Do you remember the era of larger-than-life figures like Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe, who lived in glamorous Hollywood, whose public lives were completely controlled by studio PR machines, and who seemed impossibly larger-than-life? Or do you remember the 80s, when people like Mel Gibson and Eddie Murphy and Sylvester Stallone weren't just big names, but products, the very reason people would step into a movie? Even 10 years ago that system was somewhat in place, with stars like Will Smith and Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts single-handedly making movies happen.

But you only have to look at the rundown of the year's biggest films to know that it's not the names of real people that sell movies anymore-- it's the names of fictional characters, like Iron Man or Harry Potter or Batman, or of existing properties, like The Hunger Games or The Lorax or the ironclad Pixar brand. Denzel Washington, Cruise, Smith, Reese Witherspoon and other pre-2006 stars are still out there earning major paychecks, but the next generation coming up to replace them isn't getting nearly as rich-- and, as this fascinating Hollywood Reporter discusses, they're finding it almost impossible to even be considered stars. One anonymous studio executive snaps "What major star has emerged in the past five years?" There's only one answer that everyone can agree on. Can you guess it?

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