Have Hollywood's A-List Actresses Become Box-Office Busts?

Jen Aniston (AP)

There’s a select group of A-list actresses that command multiple millions per movie, presumably because their star power alone is enough to draw large crowds.

But many of these high-paid leading ladies, from Reese Witherspoon to Cameron Diaz to Jennifer Aniston, starred in some of 2010’s biggest box office bombs.

So is the current A-list sliding toward B-list status?

Let’s start with 2005 Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon.

Witherspoon earned $15 million to star in the newly-released James L. Brooks romantic comedy “How Do You Know?” The supposed-to-be-a-comedy flick cost $120 million to make, and not only garnered dismal reviews, but to-date has only made back around $29 million.

Now, Cameron Diaz.

Aside from voicing the ever-lovable Fiona in the "Shrek" cash register, fellow blonde beauty Cameron Diaz hasn't exactly been box office gold lately. Last year's "Knight & Day" with Tom Cruise was a surprising box office bust. While the film cost $117 million to make, it made just under $76 million domestically, and Diaz is reported to have earned a sweet salary of around $10 million.

PHOTOS: Reese Witherspoon.

PHOTOS: Cameron Diaz.

PHOTOS: Jen Aniston.

PHOTOS: Angelina Jolie.

Jennifer Aniston hasn’t had a silver screen hit in quite some time, either. The former “Friends” star is estimated to charge a minimum of $7-8 million per production. However, her last rom com “The Switch” earned a paltry $27 million at the box office, making just a little more than the $19 million it cost to make. Before that, “Love Happens” made $22 million domestically, having cost $18 million to make.

And even though Jen's blood rival Angelina Jolie went all-out promoting her most recent 2010 big-time studio movie “The Tourist," it turned out to be quite an under-performer. The drama, co-starring Johnny Depp, and set in exotic Venice, Italy, cost $100 million to make but only brought back $60 million at the box office. The Oscar-winning actress reportedly reels in at least $15 million for a big budget studio film like this, which adds up to about a quarter of the domestic take.

So why are Hollywood’s highest paid actresses often struggling to fill seats? "The younger generation of moviegoers is all about reality TV and the personal lives of a celebrity," entertainment expert Heather Newgen told Pop Tarts. "While Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston may sell magazines and generate traffic for entertainment sites, their films are struggling at the box office as a result. People care about who they're dating and what they're wearing more than anything."

Movie expert and founder of www.geekactually.com David McVay doesn't believe studios should be investing such high sums of money on talent, regardless of who they are and what they’ve done.

"With the target demographic, 18-25, more interested in the digital world then cinema, the studios need to find new ways to entice viewers to the big screen. They also have to look at distribution as a whole," McVay said. "The mighty box office isn't what it used to be and many films that bomb at the box office end up turning huge profits on DVD and Blu-Ray because have home cinema set-ups and have given up going out."

Oh, and some decent script material might help, too.

"The viewing public is getting sick of the machine that Hollywood has become," McVay said. "They are starved for original, clever and stimulating material and they get remakes, sequels and 'Yogi Bear.'"

At least none of these actresses can be blamed for "Yogi."