Ben Stiller Vs Robert De Niro: Who is the Bigger Movie Star Today?

Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro co-star in the Focker series of movies including Little Fockers. The first two installments in the series have been huge box office hits and made a ton of money.

Meet the Fockers was released in 2004 and has made $517 million dollars worldwide at the box office and Meet the Parents was released in 2000 and has made $330 million dollars. But which one of the stars from the Focker series is a bigger movie star today?

On the surface one might think that Robert De Niro is a bigger movie star than Ben Stiller. De Niro has won two Academy Awards and been nominated six times. Ben Stiller has yet to even be nominated for an Academy Award. But looking at the statistics from a number of Internet websites and the box office receipts from their different movies reveals some interesting results. Here are the numbers:

Google Search Engine

Robert De Niro - 5.5 million results

Ben Stiller - 4.8 million results

There are about 15% more results associated with Robert De Niro than there is with Ben Stiller from Google.

While the numbers for both are impressive they are nothing compared to what stars like Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp have.

Global Monthly Searches

Robert De Niro - 368,000

Ben Stiller - 301,000

Using the Google AdWords Keyword Tool which shows global monthly searches for names reveals that there are about 22% more people searching for Robert De Niro than there are searching for Ben Stiller.

Again while the numbers are impressive they pale when compared to such stars as Lady Gaga, Justin Beiber and even Jennifer Aniston.

YouTube

Robert De Niro - 5,470

Ben Stiller - 5,370

There are just under 2% more videos on YouTube associated with Robert De Niro than there are associated with Ben Stiller. A bit surprising the number is not higher since De Niro has been in twice as many movies and been around a lot longer.

Box Office Results

To date both Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro have each been in a dozen movies that have made over $100 million dollars. But Ben Stiller has only been in 30 movies in his career while Robert De Niro has been in 62.

So 40% of the movies Ben Stiller has starred in have made over $100 million dollars while only 19% of Robert De Niro's movies have made that much money.

Part of that has to do with the fact that De Niro was making movies in the 1970's. But all the big movies De Niro was associated with in the 1970's including The Godfather Part II, The Deer Hunter, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull (1980) never made really big money.

Not one of those movies has made even $50 million dollars worldwide at the box office and even the 1990 Goodfellas has only made $47 million.

On the other hand Ben Stiller has been in 7 movies that have made over $300 million dollars. Robert De Niro has been in 3 movies that made over $300 million dollars and in two of them his co-star is Ben Stiller from the first two Fockers movies listed above.

The only other movie De Niro was in that made over $300 million is the animated comedy Shark Tale.

Total Movie Gross (Domestic box office only)

Robert De Niro - $2.3 billion

Ben Stiller - $2.14 billion dollars

De Niro is ahead here by about $160 million dollars and would be even further ahead if the numbers were adjusted for inflation but again De Niro has been in twice as many movies.

Average Movie Gross (Domestic box office only)

Ben Stiller - $74 million

Robert De Niro - $38 million

Here is where Ben Stiller has a clear advantage. Even adjusting for inflation there is no way De Niro could wipe out the fact that Ben Stiller movies have grossed on average twice as much as Robert De Niro movies. And we are using domestic numbers only here. If we used worldwide receipts the numbers would show even more of an advantage for Ben Stiller.

Overall Results - Who is the Bigger Movie Star Ben Stiller or Robert De Niro?

The overall results present a mixed bag but one number stands alone.

Clearly based upon Internet websites and the fact that he won two Academy Awards, Robert De Niro is slightly more popular and better known than Ben Stiller is today. But based upon the average box office gross of their movies Ben Stiller is the bigger star and his movies make far more money than Robert De Niro's ever have.

In the end the public votes with their pocketbooks and they clearly prefer seeing Ben Stiller in movies over Robert De Niro.

For more see Robert De Niro's Biggest Money Making Movies

Ben Stiller Movies - Biggest Money Makers

Source:

Box Office Mojo