No. It’s not Matt Damon who lost his star power. But the power of the stars has lost its shine.
Guys like Damon, Affleck, McConaughey and dozens of other big stars can still make big movies. They still have a lot of power.
However, this does not mean that your films will be successful anymore. There is no longer the almost guaranteed successful debut that movie stars used to dictate. They can make films, but these films still need to be endorsed by other variants. Their famous names guarantee nothing.
In the 1980s and 1990s, big famous names could afford most of their films: guys like Hanks, Cruise, Ford, Nicholson , and eventually Pitt , etc.
Cruise was the poster boy for that era after his megastar role in Top Gun . It dominated the box office in the late 1980s and most of the 1990s. Even the crap called ” Cocktail ” was a hit.
However, after his public relations disaster in 2005, Cruise had difficulty financing his films with just his name. His return to the Mission: Impossible franchise is what gave him more sustained box office success.
As the 2010s rolled around, it was increasingly difficult for big names to consistently bankroll films.
Stallone and Arnold were unable to continue working in the 21st century without having to return to their respective franchises.
And even with these franchises, the results were not that good.
So it all comes down to making great films (films that already come from a wake of previous successes in other media) these days. And even then, the result is unpredictable.
In short, big names can be part of a film’s strategy. But they no longer guarantee that the film will be a success.
It’s a new Hollywood.
Even the big names of the 2010s and 2020s can’t always promise big success.
So it’s not that Matt Damon has lost his star power. He still has it. It’s just that star power changed the impact they had at the box office.