Baseball and pop music have both spawned subsidiary industries devoted to statistics, ranking and records of chart performance. In recent years, Hollywood has begun catching up. Two years ago Christopher Reynolds published "Hollywood Power Stats," a book of charts that included rankings of the top 100 directors, actors and actresses, listed in order of how much money their films had grossed over the previous five years. Somehow, among the actors Joe Pesci came in first. John Heard came in third.
In recent years, Entertainment Weekly and Premiere magazines have published top-100 lists of the most powerful people in entertainment. In Entertainment Weekly, the ranking covers all of show business, while Premiere limits itself to movies. But the longest-running Hollywood popularity contest, and one of the most respected, is an annual list by Quigley Publications of the year's top moneymaking stars, released every January.
Begun in 1932 by Quigley, which publishes an annual called The International Motion Picture Almanac, the list is based on a poll in which the owners of 400 movie theaters across the country are asked to name the previous year's top 10 moneymaking stars, most of whom, these days, appear in summer blockbusters. In 1995, Tom Hanks came in first and Jim Carrey second, the same positions they held the previous year. The rest of the top 10 for 1995 were, in descending order, Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford, Robin Williams, Sandra Bullock, Mel Gibson, Demi Moore, John Travolta and two who were tied for 10th place, Kevin Costner and Michael Douglas.
The poll results over the last 64 years suggest just how much the career ups and downs of movie stars resemble those of baseball players and pop singers. Some are one-hit wonders (like the pop star Prince, who made the top 10 just once, in 1984, with "Purple Rain"). Others remain top-grossing stars for a decade, sometimes two.
The poll suggests that the moviegoing public is always more loyal to men than to women. Of all the stars who have made the top 10, John Wayne remained on the list longest. He first made the list in 1949 and lasted through 1974, missing it only once, in 1958. In four of those years he was No. 1.
Among women, Barbra Streisand leads, having been on and off the list for 10 years, starting in 1969. But she was never No. 1.
Wayne's only serious rival has been Clint Eastwood, who in 1993 was ranked first for the fifth time.
Besides Mr. Eastwood, only two other stars have been No. 1 five times. Bing Crosby held the top position from 1944 through 1948, and -- of all people -- Burt Reynolds from 1978 through 1982.
Why Crosby and Mr. Reynolds and not Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant or Marilyn Monroe, whom Entertainment Weekly once named the four "greatest movie stars ever"? For two reasons. Bogart and company are transcendent cultural icons who appeared in classic American films. A majority of films starring Crosby and Mr. Reynolds were star vehicles, often flimsy showcases that relied upon the box-office magnetism of their leading men.
That's what's so fascinating about the Quigley poll. Making box-office history is obviously not the same as making legendary movies. The best way of outlasting the decade is to pick projects that have dramatic resonance.
The Quigley poll, on the other hand, lists the No. 1 stars from 1932 through the 1940's, year by year: Marie Dressler (1932-33), Will Rogers (1934), Shirley Temple (1935-38), Mickey Rooney (1939-41), Abbott and Costello (1942), Betty Grable (1943), Bing Crosby (1944-48) and Bob Hope (1949). How many of their movies can you remember?
Gary Cooper had an 18-year run on the top-10 list but made No. 1 only once. Clark Gable never made the top position, being muscled out by Shirley Temple for three years running.
Ms. Hepburn -- Hollywood's quintessential Yankee lady -- crept onto the top 10 only once, in 1969, when she won an Academy Award for "The Lion in Winter."
Stars who did better in the poll have included Jane Withers (1937-38), the figure-skating star Sonja Henie (1937-39) and the singing cowboy Gene Autry (1940-42). Measured solely by her box-office clout, Grable, the most popular pinup during World War II, was the top female star of the 40's, with stalwart Greer Garson (1942-46) a distant second.
The conventional wisdom of Hollywood these days is that no female stars can guarantee a hit movie the way Tom Hanks and Jim Carrey can. The poor box-office performance of Ms. Bullock's recent "Two if by Sea" suggests that she may soon be off the top-10 list. The last time more than three women landed in the top 10 was in 1981; the last woman to be No. 1 was Julie Andrews, in 1967.
The 60's were a good era for female stars like Ms. Andrews, Elizabeth Taylor and Doris Day (who was No. 1 four times). In this prefeminist period, audiences appreciated actresses who conformed to their era's "good girl, bad girl" fantasies. Ms. Andrews, Ms. Day and Sandra Dee, the archetypally perky early-60's teen-ager who made the charts four times, were "nice," while Ms. Taylor, America's own Cleopatra, refused to play by the rules.
As for which of last year's top 10 will become icons who transcend their times, who knows? But Mr. Hanks probably stands the best chance. Like most of today's stars, he is a new, improved version of an established screen archetype. In his case it is the all-American nice guy popularized by James Stewart (who placed in the top 10 nine times between 1950 and 1959).
Mr. Hanks is proof that in Hollywood, the land of the happy ending, nice
guys often finish first.