Jolie jolts man's world of action films (THR)

By R. Kinsey Lowe

Courtesy Sony Pictures Entertainment

Angelina Jolie, action star.

Commanding $20 million a pop plus a hefty first-dollar gross percentage and other sizable ancillary benefits, Jolie may not be the first actress to reach those heights but she's probably unique in that she's done it as an action star, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Her next movie to hit theaters, "Salt," is an action project originally written to star a man - Tom Cruise, whose status as an action star appears to have dimmed at least as far as U.S. audiences are concerned.

The way "Salt" producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura sees it, Jolie is "really the first female to transcend gender. I don't think it's occurred before."

The Reporter points out that indeed "a star must be in some rarefied atmosphere when a one-hander lead role in a huge studio action tentpole is rewritten from male to female," and not unlike the pivotal moment 25 years ago when Jerry Bruckheimer had the white lead envisioned for "Beverly Hills Cop" transformed for Eddie Murphy, then 22.

When you consider that the five action movies she has starred in over the past 10 years have grossed nearly $1.5 billion worldwide, it doesn't seem as much of a stretch. Those movies were "Wanted" (2008), "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (2005), "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life" (2003), "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" (2001) and "Gone in 60 Seconds" (2000).

The Philip Noyce-directed "Salt," in which Jolie plays a CIA spy forced to run for her life, is likely to push that total higher when it opens July 23, as its only competition that weekend is the kid-friendly "Ramona and Beezus" and the sophomore weekend for "Inception."

By way of comparison, "Wanted" opened at $50.9 million against "WALL-E" two summers ago, and "Smith" debuted with $50.3 million in 2005.

Furthermore, 58% of Jolie's action grosses tend to come from from international audiences.

In addition to the Sony project "Salt," Jolie also has "The Tourist," a reworking of the 2005 French thriller "Anthony Zimmer," which pairs her tough character with Johnny Depp.

For more, see Jay Fernandez's story in the Hollywood Reporter.