Blake Lively- Jason Baldoni and NYT - False Light claims

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m really curious how this movie made so much money. It’s currently grossed over $350 million, which is a crazy amount for a domestic violence film. Baldwin has come nowhere close to these numbers — Five Feet Apart grossed 45 million but Clouds grossed far less, I can’t even find real numbers but maybe only $2 million? Lively’s A Simple Favor (I) with Kendrick grossed about $100 million. I don’t think Hoover’s ever come close to this before. Was the success in fact from all the controversy? Was Reynold’s promotion firm really successful here? $350 million is a lot of viewers.

Maybe this was the plan all along, sort of reverse psychology. Even negative attention is better than no attention.

No,no. You guys are missing that Colleen Hoover‘s book was hugely popular. People have been waiting for this movie to be made for years and there was a lot of attention on it as soon as it was announced. She has a ginormous fan base. Another one of her books, verity, is being made with Anne Hathaway, Josh Hartnett, and Dakota Johnson.

I personally don’t understand the popularity of the books, but she is a huge deal. This was a really covered role that Blake scored.

Sorry, should say coveted role.

I mean, okay, but Come. On. Three past Hoover books have been made into movies: Ugly Love, Confess, and Maybe Someday, and none of them have made anywhere near this much money. I don't think I've heard of them, even. Not that fans may not have been looking out for this one, particularly, but are you really saying that would get the movie to $350M? I think It Ends With Us sold one or two million last year - that's not really getting into the half-of-a-Marvel-movie where the film's gross wound up, as far as I'm aware.

I don’t think I live under a rock but I have never heard of Colleen Hoover or her books. What demographic is this geared towards?

Women’s fiction/chick lit/romance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The book had over ten million sales - that was a bigger draw than BL

Never knew Colleen Hoover existed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The book had over ten million sales - that was a bigger draw than BL

It appeals to a huge demographic of women. My teen had heard of it because some of her friends had read Colleen Hoover books. And when I saw it this summer, the theater was fill of middle age and older ladies. (I’m 48 and enjoyed it).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The book had over ten million sales - that was a bigger draw than BL

It appeals to a huge demographic of women. My teen had heard of it because some of her friends had read Colleen Hoover books. And when I saw it this summer, the theater was fill of middle age and older ladies. (I’m 48 and enjoyed it).

It’s like the modern Twilight series basically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The book had over ten million sales - that was a bigger draw than BL

Never knew Colleen Hoover existed.

Ok and I though Blake Lively was just a friend of Taylor’s

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The book had over ten million sales - that was a bigger draw than BL

Note that's total book sales since it's release date in 2016 - so $10M across nearly 10 years. That's not even Gone Girl numbers btw (20M), nowhere near Harry Potter stuff or The Hunger Games. Even The Fault in Our Stars and The Girl on the Train were 23 million. At 10 million you are in Me Before You (12 million) and The Lovely Bones (10 million) and those films only grossed about $50M each. The only book adaptation I see with sales of $10M where the film came in at kinda similar numbers was The Help, where book sales were also around 10M and box office was around $221M. If you consider Gone Girl similar with 2x as many book sales, that film grossed about $350M, but that starred fricking Affleck and Pike, directed by David Fincher for pete's sake. I really don't think this came down to the book's popularity, although I can see why you'd like to position it as such.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The book had over ten million sales - that was a bigger draw than BL

Never knew Colleen Hoover existed.

Ok and I though Blake Lively was just a friend of Taylor’s

I honestly never thought about any of these people until now for some reason. I am pushing 50 though and am totally disgusted at these sorry excuses for entertainers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The book had over ten million sales - that was a bigger draw than BL

Note that's total book sales since it's release date in 2016 - so $10M across nearly 10 years. That's not even Gone Girl numbers btw (20M), nowhere near Harry Potter stuff or The Hunger Games. Even The Fault in Our Stars and The Girl on the Train were 23 million. At 10 million you are in Me Before You (12 million) and The Lovely Bones (10 million) and those films only grossed about $50M each. The only book adaptation I see with sales of $10M where the film came in at kinda similar numbers was The Help, where book sales were also around 10M and box office was around $221M. If you consider Gone Girl similar with 2x as many book sales, that film grossed about $350M, but that starred fricking Affleck and Pike, directed by David Fincher for pete's sake. I really don't think this came down to the book's popularity, although I can see why you'd like to position it as such.

The Girl on the Train grossed $173M, and that was with Emily Blunt (and the same director that did The Help!). So I really don't think the crazy high $350M was from rabid Hoover fans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m really curious how this movie made so much money. It’s currently grossed over $350 million, which is a crazy amount for a domestic violence film. Baldwin has come nowhere close to these numbers — Five Feet Apart grossed 45 million but Clouds grossed far less, I can’t even find real numbers but maybe only $2 million? Lively’s A Simple Favor (I) with Kendrick grossed about $100 million. I don’t think Hoover’s ever come close to this before. Was the success in fact from all the controversy? Was Reynold’s promotion firm really successful here? $350 million is a lot of viewers.

Maybe this was the plan all along, sort of reverse psychology. Even negative attention is better than no attention.

No,no. You guys are missing that Colleen Hoover‘s book was hugely popular. People have been waiting for this movie to be made for years and there was a lot of attention on it as soon as it was announced. She has a ginormous fan base. Another one of her books, verity, is being made with Anne Hathaway, Josh Hartnett, and Dakota Johnson.

I personally don’t understand the popularity of the books, but she is a huge deal. This was a really covered role that Blake scored.

Sorry, should say coveted role.

I mean, okay, but Come. On. Three past Hoover books have been made into movies: Ugly Love, Confess, and Maybe Someday, and none of them have made anywhere near this much money. I don't think I've heard of them, even. Not that fans may not have been looking out for this one, particularly, but are you really saying that would get the movie to $350M? I think It Ends With Us sold one or two million last year - that's not really getting into the half-of-a-Marvel-movie where the film's gross wound up, as far as I'm aware.

Anne Hathaway is an Oscar winner. SHe has her pick of any roles. The fact that she’s doing verity means these movies are going to be seen. I think you are really over estimating Blake here and really underestimating the machine that is Colleen Hoover.

It's being made by Amazon studios, though, and it's not yet clear if it's getting a theater release. It may be streaming only. Hathaway's last movie (The Idea of You) was a streaming-only feature on Prime, and she also was one of the big names who did an episode of their Modern Love series a few years ago (Tina Fey also did an episode, there were other A-list type people in it). She also starred in that WeCrashed series about the WeWork people -- I don't think that was Amazon though, maybe Max? Still a streaming product.

Streaming makes it much harder to evaluate the market for actor's box office power these days. Lots of big stars do streaming-only movies and limited series these days, and the streamers spend HUGE money on those productions right now, so it can be quite lucrative for the creators involved. But unlike a film with a theater release, you never get the kind of clear numbers with streaming products -- the streamers don't even release a transparent list of top streamed shows or movies (they release these partial lists but it's often not even clear what they represent because there are lots of ways to count something as "viewed" that don't necessarily equate to a ticket sale in a movie theater).

All of which is not to say that Colleen Hoover is not a lucrative product right now -- obviously she's having a moment and studios like that her book adaptations have a build in audience. In fact the success of IEWU actually makes it more likely that Verity will get a theater release of some kind. But I also think you can argue that IEWU outperformed expectations even knowing it was a popular Hoover book with a decent following. One thing I will note is that international box office accounted for over 200m of its box office -- that's huge. I think Hoover might have a decent following in Europe, but also Lively went out of her way to go promote the film in London (attended the London premiere in person and paid for Ferrer to accompany her to it on Lively's own dime -- not sure if Lively also paid for her own travel/lodging for that premiere as well). I think you can argue that Lively played an important role in the success of the movie given it's international success, because of her willingness to go the extra mile on the promotional tour and also because of her recognizability to an international audience thanks to both Gossip Girl and her association with Reynolds. She's also a fashion darling and may receive more pressing Europe because of that -- her relationship with Vogue and certain designers (including Versace who did a lot of her clothes for the promotional tour for IEWU) is pretty well known among people interested in fashion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The book had over ten million sales - that was a bigger draw than BL

Never knew Colleen Hoover existed.

Ok and I though Blake Lively was just a friend of Taylor’s

I honestly never thought about any of these people until now for some reason. I am pushing 50 though and am totally disgusted at these sorry excuses for entertainers.

Yeah - I had ankle surgery in December and finally figured out who Blake lively was when I binged Gossip Girl. It took me a bit to figure out who JB was. I did read a CH book once that was not great and I couldn’t tell you which one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The book had over ten million sales - that was a bigger draw than BL

Note that's total book sales since it's release date in 2016 - so $10M across nearly 10 years. That's not even Gone Girl numbers btw (20M), nowhere near Harry Potter stuff or The Hunger Games. Even The Fault in Our Stars and The Girl on the Train were 23 million. At 10 million you are in Me Before You (12 million) and The Lovely Bones (10 million) and those films only grossed about $50M each. The only book adaptation I see with sales of $10M where the film came in at kinda similar numbers was The Help, where book sales were also around 10M and box office was around $221M. If you consider Gone Girl similar with 2x as many book sales, that film grossed about $350M, but that starred fricking Affleck and Pike, directed by David Fincher for pete's sake. I really don't think this came down to the book's popularity, although I can see why you'd like to position it as such.

The Girl on the Train grossed $173M, and that was with Emily Blunt (and the same director that did The Help!). So I really don't think the crazy high $350M was from rabid Hoover fans.

What’s your point? I think the negative press surrounding this is attracting more people now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m really curious how this movie made so much money. It’s currently grossed over $350 million, which is a crazy amount for a domestic violence film. Baldwin has come nowhere close to these numbers — Five Feet Apart grossed 45 million but Clouds grossed far less, I can’t even find real numbers but maybe only $2 million? Lively’s A Simple Favor (I) with Kendrick grossed about $100 million. I don’t think Hoover’s ever come close to this before. Was the success in fact from all the controversy? Was Reynold’s promotion firm really successful here? $350 million is a lot of viewers.

Maybe this was the plan all along, sort of reverse psychology. Even negative attention is better than no attention.

No,no. You guys are missing that Colleen Hoover‘s book was hugely popular. People have been waiting for this movie to be made for years and there was a lot of attention on it as soon as it was announced. She has a ginormous fan base. Another one of her books, verity, is being made with Anne Hathaway, Josh Hartnett, and Dakota Johnson.

I personally don’t understand the popularity of the books, but she is a huge deal. This was a really covered role that Blake scored.

Sorry, should say coveted role.

I mean, okay, but Come. On. Three past Hoover books have been made into movies: Ugly Love, Confess, and Maybe Someday, and none of them have made anywhere near this much money. I don't think I've heard of them, even. Not that fans may not have been looking out for this one, particularly, but are you really saying that would get the movie to $350M? I think It Ends With Us sold one or two million last year - that's not really getting into the half-of-a-Marvel-movie where the film's gross wound up, as far as I'm aware.

Anne Hathaway is an Oscar winner. SHe has her pick of any roles. The fact that she’s doing verity means these movies are going to be seen. I think you are really over estimating Blake here and really underestimating the machine that is Colleen Hoover.

It's being made by Amazon studios, though, and it's not yet clear if it's getting a theater release. It may be streaming only. Hathaway's last movie (The Idea of You) was a streaming-only feature on Prime, and she also was one of the big names who did an episode of their Modern Love series a few years ago (Tina Fey also did an episode, there were other A-list type people in it). She also starred in that WeCrashed series about the WeWork people -- I don't think that was Amazon though, maybe Max? Still a streaming product.

Streaming makes it much harder to evaluate the market for actor's box office power these days. Lots of big stars do streaming-only movies and limited series these days, and the streamers spend HUGE money on those productions right now, so it can be quite lucrative for the creators involved. But unlike a film with a theater release, you never get the kind of clear numbers with streaming products -- the streamers don't even release a transparent list of top streamed shows or movies (they release these partial lists but it's often not even clear what they represent because there are lots of ways to count something as "viewed" that don't necessarily equate to a ticket sale in a movie theater).

All of which is not to say that Colleen Hoover is not a lucrative product right now -- obviously she's having a moment and studios like that her book adaptations have a build in audience. In fact the success of IEWU actually makes it more likely that Verity will get a theater release of some kind. But I also think you can argue that IEWU outperformed expectations even knowing it was a popular Hoover book with a decent following. One thing I will note is that international box office accounted for over 200m of its box office -- that's huge. I think Hoover might have a decent following in Europe, but also Lively went out of her way to go promote the film in London (attended the London premiere in person and paid for Ferrer to accompany her to it on Lively's own dime -- not sure if Lively also paid for her own travel/lodging for that premiere as well). I think you can argue that Lively played an important role in the success of the movie given it's international success, because of her willingness to go the extra mile on the promotional tour and also because of her recognizability to an international audience thanks to both Gossip Girl and her association with Reynolds. She's also a fashion darling and may receive more pressing Europe because of that -- her relationship with Vogue and certain designers (including Versace who did a lot of her clothes for the promotional tour for IEWU) is pretty well known among people interested in fashion.

She’s a fashion nightmare but ok

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m really curious how this movie made so much money. It’s currently grossed over $350 million, which is a crazy amount for a domestic violence film. Baldwin has come nowhere close to these numbers — Five Feet Apart grossed 45 million but Clouds grossed far less, I can’t even find real numbers but maybe only $2 million? Lively’s A Simple Favor (I) with Kendrick grossed about $100 million. I don’t think Hoover’s ever come close to this before. Was the success in fact from all the controversy? Was Reynold’s promotion firm really successful here? $350 million is a lot of viewers.

Maybe this was the plan all along, sort of reverse psychology. Even negative attention is better than no attention.

No,no. You guys are missing that Colleen Hoover‘s book was hugely popular. People have been waiting for this movie to be made for years and there was a lot of attention on it as soon as it was announced. She has a ginormous fan base. Another one of her books, verity, is being made with Anne Hathaway, Josh Hartnett, and Dakota Johnson.

I personally don’t understand the popularity of the books, but she is a huge deal. This was a really covered role that Blake scored.

Sorry, should say coveted role.

I mean, okay, but Come. On. Three past Hoover books have been made into movies: Ugly Love, Confess, and Maybe Someday, and none of them have made anywhere near this much money. I don't think I've heard of them, even. Not that fans may not have been looking out for this one, particularly, but are you really saying that would get the movie to $350M? I think It Ends With Us sold one or two million last year - that's not really getting into the half-of-a-Marvel-movie where the film's gross wound up, as far as I'm aware.

Anne Hathaway is an Oscar winner. SHe has her pick of any roles. The fact that she’s doing verity means these movies are going to be seen. I think you are really over estimating Blake here and really underestimating the machine that is Colleen Hoover.

It's being made by Amazon studios, though, and it's not yet clear if it's getting a theater release. It may be streaming only. Hathaway's last movie (The Idea of You) was a streaming-only feature on Prime, and she also was one of the big names who did an episode of their Modern Love series a few years ago (Tina Fey also did an episode, there were other A-list type people in it). She also starred in that WeCrashed series about the WeWork people -- I don't think that was Amazon though, maybe Max? Still a streaming product.

Streaming makes it much harder to evaluate the market for actor's box office power these days. Lots of big stars do streaming-only movies and limited series these days, and the streamers spend HUGE money on those productions right now, so it can be quite lucrative for the creators involved. But unlike a film with a theater release, you never get the kind of clear numbers with streaming products -- the streamers don't even release a transparent list of top streamed shows or movies (they release these partial lists but it's often not even clear what they represent because there are lots of ways to count something as "viewed" that don't necessarily equate to a ticket sale in a movie theater).

All of which is not to say that Colleen Hoover is not a lucrative product right now -- obviously she's having a moment and studios like that her book adaptations have a build in audience. In fact the success of IEWU actually makes it more likely that Verity will get a theater release of some kind. But I also think you can argue that IEWU outperformed expectations even knowing it was a popular Hoover book with a decent following. One thing I will note is that international box office accounted for over 200m of its box office -- that's huge. I think Hoover might have a decent following in Europe, but also Lively went out of her way to go promote the film in London (attended the London premiere in person and paid for Ferrer to accompany her to it on Lively's own dime -- not sure if Lively also paid for her own travel/lodging for that premiere as well). I think you can argue that Lively played an important role in the success of the movie given it's international success, because of her willingness to go the extra mile on the promotional tour and also because of her recognizability to an international audience thanks to both Gossip Girl and her association with Reynolds. She's also a fashion darling and may receive more pressing Europe because of that -- her relationship with Vogue and certain designers (including Versace who did a lot of her clothes for the promotional tour for IEWU) is pretty well known among people interested in fashion.

Europeans are big BL fans? Hahahaha.. where in Europe? I don’t think my relatives in Europe have ever heard of her, I will have to confirm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The book had over ten million sales - that was a bigger draw than BL

Note that's total book sales since it's release date in 2016 - so $10M across nearly 10 years. That's not even Gone Girl numbers btw (20M), nowhere near Harry Potter stuff or The Hunger Games. Even The Fault in Our Stars and The Girl on the Train were 23 million. At 10 million you are in Me Before You (12 million) and The Lovely Bones (10 million) and those films only grossed about $50M each. The only book adaptation I see with sales of $10M where the film came in at kinda similar numbers was The Help, where book sales were also around 10M and box office was around $221M. If you consider Gone Girl similar with 2x as many book sales, that film grossed about $350M, but that starred fricking Affleck and Pike, directed by David Fincher for pete's sake. I really don't think this came down to the book's popularity, although I can see why you'd like to position it as such.

The Girl on the Train grossed $173M, and that was with Emily Blunt (and the same director that did The Help!). So I really don't think the crazy high $350M was from rabid Hoover fans.

What’s your point? I think the negative press surrounding this is attracting more people now.

But the film premiered long before the suit was filed and made most of its box office before the facts of the Baldoni/Lively fight really came to be known. Seems like something went right for this crazy success story and I'd like to know what that was. So many people in here are attacking Lively for her promotion of the film, but I don't think Hoover or Baldoni possibly got them to $350 million. And if Lively was really as much of a failure in front of all of America as Baldoni supporters in this thread position her as, then the film should have flopped or just done $25 or even $50 mil like Baldoni's Five Feet Apart. Doesn't seem like Lively's promotional efforts failed at all, frankly. This movie was a giant and unexpected box office success.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m really curious how this movie made so much money. It’s currently grossed over $350 million, which is a crazy amount for a domestic violence film. Baldwin has come nowhere close to these numbers — Five Feet Apart grossed 45 million but Clouds grossed far less, I can’t even find real numbers but maybe only $2 million? Lively’s A Simple Favor (I) with Kendrick grossed about $100 million. I don’t think Hoover’s ever come close to this before. Was the success in fact from all the controversy? Was Reynold’s promotion firm really successful here? $350 million is a lot of viewers.

Maybe this was the plan all along, sort of reverse psychology. Even negative attention is better than no attention.

No,no. You guys are missing that Colleen Hoover‘s book was hugely popular. People have been waiting for this movie to be made for years and there was a lot of attention on it as soon as it was announced. She has a ginormous fan base. Another one of her books, verity, is being made with Anne Hathaway, Josh Hartnett, and Dakota Johnson.

I personally don’t understand the popularity of the books, but she is a huge deal. This was a really covered role that Blake scored.

Sorry, should say coveted role.

I mean, okay, but Come. On. Three past Hoover books have been made into movies: Ugly Love, Confess, and Maybe Someday, and none of them have made anywhere near this much money. I don't think I've heard of them, even. Not that fans may not have been looking out for this one, particularly, but are you really saying that would get the movie to $350M? I think It Ends With Us sold one or two million last year - that's not really getting into the half-of-a-Marvel-movie where the film's gross wound up, as far as I'm aware.

Anne Hathaway is an Oscar winner. SHe has her pick of any roles. The fact that she’s doing verity means these movies are going to be seen. I think you are really over estimating Blake here and really underestimating the machine that is Colleen Hoover.

It's being made by Amazon studios, though, and it's not yet clear if it's getting a theater release. It may be streaming only. Hathaway's last movie (The Idea of You) was a streaming-only feature on Prime, and she also was one of the big names who did an episode of their Modern Love series a few years ago (Tina Fey also did an episode, there were other A-list type people in it). She also starred in that WeCrashed series about the WeWork people -- I don't think that was Amazon though, maybe Max? Still a streaming product.

Streaming makes it much harder to evaluate the market for actor's box office power these days. Lots of big stars do streaming-only movies and limited series these days, and the streamers spend HUGE money on those productions right now, so it can be quite lucrative for the creators involved. But unlike a film with a theater release, you never get the kind of clear numbers with streaming products -- the streamers don't even release a transparent list of top streamed shows or movies (they release these partial lists but it's often not even clear what they represent because there are lots of ways to count something as "viewed" that don't necessarily equate to a ticket sale in a movie theater).

All of which is not to say that Colleen Hoover is not a lucrative product right now -- obviously she's having a moment and studios like that her book adaptations have a build in audience. In fact the success of IEWU actually makes it more likely that Verity will get a theater release of some kind. But I also think you can argue that IEWU outperformed expectations even knowing it was a popular Hoover book with a decent following. One thing I will note is that international box office accounted for over 200m of its box office -- that's huge. I think Hoover might have a decent following in Europe, but also Lively went out of her way to go promote the film in London (attended the London premiere in person and paid for Ferrer to accompany her to it on Lively's own dime -- not sure if Lively also paid for her own travel/lodging for that premiere as well). I think you can argue that Lively played an important role in the success of the movie given it's international success, because of her willingness to go the extra mile on the promotional tour and also because of her recognizability to an international audience thanks to both Gossip Girl and her association with Reynolds. She's also a fashion darling and may receive more pressing Europe because of that -- her relationship with Vogue and certain designers (including Versace who did a lot of her clothes for the promotional tour for IEWU) is pretty well known among people interested in fashion.

She’s a fashion nightmare but ok

PP here and I personally don't like her style but that's beside the point. She's got good relationships with designers and fashion editors including a really good relationship with Vogue. She did the Vogue cover in September to coincide with the release of IEWU (the September issue comes out in August, and also is considered the most important issue of the year so the cover is a big get). She's hosted the Met Gala more than once and tends to be more involved and get better reviews than most celebrity hosts. She is a frequent front row guest at both Paris and New York fashion weeks and has attended Paris FW with Anna Wintour which is a weird special honor that tends to go to this very small group of actresses who Wintour dotes on (Emma Stone would be another actress in this group).

I find her personal fashion kind of obvious BUT it's true she famously does not work with a stylist and that she generally looks great on red carpets, which means she does know something because that's really hard to do -- not just because it requires understanding what looks good and how to put the whole look together, but it's also a logistics challenge because it means she has to have the relationships directly with designers and know how to manage the kind of political/interpersonal aspect of it which is more complicated than you might realize.

All of which is to say that Lively has some special attributes as an actress that would make her especially appealing from a box office standpoint for a movie with a primarily female audience in the 18-35 and 35-50 demographics -- those overlap perfectly with the audience for fashion content whether you are talking about Vogue magazine or In Style or just people who pay close attention to fashion blogs and red carpet events. And given IEWU's international box office, I would bet that her willingness to go abroad to promote the movie, to wear big name fashion and do red carpet events in London where it's going to get picked up by European fashion press who are already very familiar with her, translates to actual money for the studio in a very real way. Ever magazine article, blog post, and social media photo of Lively wearing big name fashion on a red carpet while promoting the movie is worth a lot of exposure that it could be hard to get with another actress. It's real value she brings to the project.