Does a famous cast mean a better film?

On Monday, I published a piece on whether a famous lead actually pays off at the box office. A few readers reached out to ask whether I had taken the films’ quality into account. I had, but what stuck with me was how many people clearly assumed that a famous cast meant a better film. The cynic in me assumed the opposite!Let’s briefly consider the two perspectives, and then see which the data reveals to be correct. Fame = quality?You can see why someone might think that famous actors would be in better films. Famous actors are, on the whole, richer and far better supported than those still on the way up. They have readers, managers and agents whose job is to find good scripts. Not only can they seek them out, but they will also be constantly offered more of them because most filmmakers want/need a famous name in their film. They also have power - Tom Cruise can pretty much star in almost any film he wants (if he is willing to be flexible on his fee, of course). So it might be…