Umm…Because he was?
It may be hard to fathom now, but 2007 featured Smith at perhaps the height of his career.
1 . He’d just come off of seven consecutive $100 million grossing movies.
From 2002 to 2007 his straight string of hits looked like this:
- Men In Black II (2002)
- Bad Boys II (2003)
- I, Robot (2004)
- Shark Tale (2004)
- Hitch (2005)
- The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
- I am Legend (2007)
Yes, this omits Kevin Smith’s Jersey Girl ( 2004), but Smith’s role in that is but a cameo — maybe three minutes of total screen time.
2. He proved he could play in multiple genres.
Notice anything interesting about the last four movies I listed?
Other than the fact they all grossed at least $160 million domestic?
They’re all in different genres:
Animation; romantic comedy; drama; sci fi action.
Dozens of actors are proven box office draws as an action star.
But Smith had proven he could headline a comedy (Hitch) just as successfully as a serious drama (The Pursuit of Happyness).
This is *extraordinarily* rare.
Put Russell Crowe in a romantic comedy and it might be good, but not a box office smash.
Put Daniel Day Lewis in an action film and it’s not guaranteed to gross $150 million+
Likewise, Tom Cruise is amazing in his action roles (and occasional dramas) but you didn’t see him headlining Happy Feet.
3. He received critical acclaim.
He received his second Best Actor Academy Award nomination for The Pursuit of Happyness. *And* managed to lead that film to a $163 million domestic gross.
4. He was still active as a rapper.
Aside from acting, he could rap.
During that time, he released two studio albums (2002’s Born to Reign and 2005’s Lost and Found) and each went gold in the U.S.
5. Comic book films weren’t yet a thing.
Smith’s star began to fade soon after 2007, in part due to the meteoric rise of comic book movies.
2008 saw the resurgence of Robert Downey, Jr.’s career and beginning of the Marvel movie dynasty with the release of Iron Man, and — that same summer — The Dark Knight set the standard for quality in a comic book movie.
Ironically, that’s the same year Smith released his own superhero movie, Hancock, and it grossed $227 million domestic / $624 million worldwide.
(For comparison’s sake, Iron Man grossed only $585 million worldwide.)
6. He did all this while being black.
Hollywood’s preference for white men is well-documented.
That Will Smith rose to become (legitimately) the biggest movie star in the world without being white is an incredible feat. Particularly as racial tensions in the U.S. have gotten far more strained in the decade since.
Thanks for Reading
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