In March, Disney was preparing the summer release of ““G.I. Jane,’’ a Ridley Scott movie starring Demi Moore as a fictional lieutenant who becomes the first woman ever to try out for the elite Navy SEALs. Then Disney showed the movie to some civilians. According to sources on the ““G.I. Jane’’ team, the good news was that test audiences genuinely liked the film. The bad news was that they were surprised they liked a movie starring Demi Moore. It seems that after ““The Scarlet Letter,’’ ““The Juror’’ and ““Striptease,’’ America has lost its appetite for the actress. What do you do if you’ve got a good film, but your star suddenly has no star power? Says one ““G.I. Jane’’ source, ““It was clear that we’d have to drag people to this movie kicking and screaming.''
Moore, who’s currently in Cannes with her husband, Bruce Willis, is one of our highest-paid actresses. She commands $12.5 million a movie when she’s naked and $10 million when she’s not. But, as a marketing chief at another studio puts it, ““she’s hugely overpaid. You can’t use her in a print ad today.’’ After the test screenings, Disney pulled the $60 million movie out of the over-crowded summer lineup and set about rethinking its marketing campaign. ““We don’t know what to do,’’ one top Disney executive laments. ““The movie’s good and Demi’s great, but how do you market her? People just don’t want to see her.''
Many would say Disney should have seen this coming. Moore’s not even a sure thing overseas, traditionally the last refuge of fading superstars. Of Moore’s three disasters, only ““Striptease’’ managed to break even after international distribution. Now Disney faces some serious obstacles. ““Selling a woman in an action movie is very difficult,’’ says another marketing chief, citing the bomb ““The Long Kiss Goodnight’’ as evidence. ““And then there’s selling Demi, who’s proven most appealing when she plays a strong woman who cries well, like she did in “Ghost’.''
Moore also had hits with ““A Few Good Men,’’ ““Indecent Proposal’’ and ““Disclosure,’’ but it’s impossible to say what she contributed at the box office. ““Anyone who thought that Demi was a slam-dunk by herself was fooling themselves,’’ says one executive. ““In her big movies, she’s always been paired with a strong male lead. It’s not her fault that she believed them when they told her that she could do it alone.''
What should Disney do about ““G.I. Jane,’’ which is now due out this fall? Moore’s character is hardly a sexy siren: her handlers even want to cut the one scene featuring a revealing sweaty T shirt. If the movie’s truly compelling, the studio should probably plan lots of advance screenings. ““Word of mouth has to overcome the extreme negative of Demi Moore,’’ says a marketing chief. ““It had better be a great movie, or Disney is facing a very expensive disaster.''
