AP Photo/Mark J. TerrillJames Franco is done with the Oscars.
But the Oscars may not be done with him.
You've heard of the Curse of Oscar host, yes?
Then again, maybe not since to the best of our limited knowledge Conspiracy Corner just made it up.
Conspiracy Corner's curse of the Oscar Host postulates that an Oscar host's movie career wanes in the immediate aftermath of his or her Academy Awards show. In the spirit of all made-up curses, and Star Trek movies, it presumes that something bad must follow something good—or, in Franco's case, something worse must follow something "terrible."
Our inspiration came from the failure of Franco's Your Highness, which bombed just weeks after his and Anne Hathaway's Oscars met a similar fate.
Was the film's poor performance a coincidence? A fluke? Or a worrisome sign for Franco's Rise of the Planet of the Apes, opening Friday?
We decided to look at the box-office track records of the 10 previous Oscar hosts, going back to the 2001 show. And, unfortunately for Franco, we found that most emcees did not cash in on their Oscar-night exposure. At least not in the short run.
Whoopi Goldberg went from the 2002 show to a cameo in the then-franchise-killling Star Trek: Nemesis. Jon Stewart's and Ellen DeGeneres' minor movie careers became more so after each comic's respective stints. Alec Baldwin hasn't been spied at the multiplex since the 2010 show. Billy Crystal hasn't had a new movie out since the 2004 show.
Forget the three exceptions (Chris Rock, Hugh Jackman and Steve Martin, who slumped after the 2001 show, disappeared after the 2010 show, but enjoyed two big hits in the months following the 2003 telecast). Forget that we examined but a small sample. And forget that curses, even real ones, don't exist. Conspiracy Corner believes it has proven that its made-up curse does exist!
So, where does this leave Franco and Rise of the Planet of the Apes?
Opening this weekend at No. 1, at least per Box Office Mojo.
Well, no one said making up curses was easy.
Besides, Hathaway's got a new movie out in a couple of weeks, the romantic-drama One Day, so maybe she'll be the cursed one.
Or, considering she's currently filming the new Batman movie, maybe not.