Is the Bale Brand Tainted? Will It Effect Terminator and Public Enemies Summer Take?
Go back a little less than a year The Dark Knight is the biggest movie since Titanic and the star of the film isn’t even the star (Heath Ledger took that), Christian Bale who has become synonymous with Batman since being Nolan’s choice as the caped crusader back in 2005.
Still is Bale a household name? Does he rank up there with Will Smith, Hugh Jackman, Shia Lebeouf (yes even him) as someone who is a big Box Office draw?
How is his latest PR onslaught of film set tirades and hotel abuse scandals going to help improve his summer tentpole resonance?
Lets look at the on-set tirade as that is the most well known of pop culture parodies and has made the day for blogs, news and sketch comedies since it happened. That incident alone is enough to draw more attention to yourself for sure and while the old PR saying is “PR is PR regardless of good or bad.” Bad is still never good when it comes to selling a film. The issue is that this type of negative outlook on Bale gives him an aggressive appeal which doesn’t skew highly with the women who want to see in a film. You do not see Hugh Jackman freaking out on set and he is one of the most bankable stars with women and even men nowadays. The idea is this incident was disruptive but not career shattering, in my opinion, if Bale had been someone with a larger face like Will Smith or Jackman and been seen not only the Batman films but various other stylings especially a romantic comedy or film then it would have been more detrimental.
Why does playing romantic lead mean anything?
Well think about it. Women who see these romantic films want a guy like Jackman, attractive, smooth, etc. All the physical qualities but they want the guy who also has charm that they can see themselves with and aggression and anger aren’t something that is attractive or believable to them. If Bale was opening this summer in romantic films this on set disruption would have smoked the film right out of summer release date and the studio would be in hole to fix it from all angles. It would be like if Matthew McConaughey punched his mom. His career would be over.
Bale besides Batman Begins and The Dark Knight has done dark, critically loved movies such as American Psycho, The Machinist, and Rescue Dawn. His lack of romantic films may actually help and the aggression character is something it would take to play John Conner in this summer’s Terminator constantly at war with the machines and that makes for a beleivabilty as well.
I have determined Bale’s brand won’t affect Terminator as it could probably market itself on its brand name franchise recognition alone.
But is “Brand Bale” appealing?
It seems he apologized that’s good enough right? The abuse scandal never held up. Publicity on Public Enemies was always going to focus higher on Johnny Depp (he more sellable) and in both trailers Bale is hardly noticeable, which is intentional to say the least. Terminator who has to rely on Bale being the face of the film besides the cyborgs themselves hasn’t changed publicity either, his voice, face and everything are all over the posters, trailers and TV spots and more.
Some PR experts would tell you that “the degree to which any celebrity bounces back from bad PR depends on how much he or she departed from living up to expectations.”
Bale had no expectations because he isn’t well known. He lacked a “significant public persona” prior to his arrest and on-set outburst. There in lies the danger though because that outburst may come to define him the rest of his career and it seems his publicity team doesn’t beleive that. I think they should have shown another side of Bale, maybe being involved in charity organization, something that shows another side of him because right now his association in films are as dark characters and his association as an actor is aggressive and violent.
Brand name Bale won’t hurt Public Enemies because the Depp Brand Name will take that movie home and Terminator’s brand name is solid and will cloud out the name Bale. It is however Bale’s own name recognition that will for right now be the guy who screamed at the crew.
If Kobe, Robert Downey Jr. and Michael Vick can make it back though then Bale should be cool. “The Public” is fairly forgetful and forgiving. Look at Miley Cyrus, she almost posed nude or scandally clad in Vanity Fair and created an uproar with her fanbase and their parents but Hannah Montana: The Movie had a huge $30 million dollar opening. Britney Spears is on her way back and even Michael Jackson will sell out a concert today.
Show the other side Mr. Bale and you will be good to go! I mean you do have a pretty face that is half the way there.
