Oscar Win Is No Career Boost

That gold-plated statuette actors take home Oscar night may as well be a parting gift from Hollywood. Past winners—like Nicole Kidman, Halle Berry, and Adrien Brody—have had little luck at the box office in subsequent years, Reuters reports. The problem, says one film critic, is that the winners usually get flooded with lucrative project offers—and end up taking on ill-suited roles.

Take Cuba Gooding Jr, who followed his winning role in Jerry Maguire with flops like Norbit. "He went from supporting player to star, and sometimes that jump is difficult," adds another critic. Standout Nicolas Cage has bucked the trend, giving hope to Oscar aspirants. In 2007—a dozen years out from his Oscar win—Cage scored the biggest hit of his career with National Treasure: Book of Secrets.
(More Oscars stories.)