Sizzle or Fizzle? Real-Life Couples On Screen

Garfield and Stone met on the set of the web-swinging reboot and have been dating ever since.
Box Office: $354 million (including The Amazing Spider-Man 2‘s opening weekend)
Relationship Longevity: Those who break box office records together stay together? With another sequel under Garfield’s Spidey belt, it would seem so. Perhaps because fans weren’t ready to let go of the obvious chemistry between the two real-life loves, the introduction of Peter Parker’s true love Mary Jane Parker was deferred from making her debut in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. —Darren Franich

The sole co-starring credit for the glitziest couple of the modern celebrity era remains their first one: an imperfect (and heavily reshot) action-comedy romp that benefits considerably from their supernova chemistry.
Box Office: $478 million worldwide
Relationship Longevity: Six children and one very long engagement later, Brangelina remains. —Darren Franich

The Material Girl and Hollywood’s bad boy met and married in a whirlwind 1985 romance triggered, indeed, on the set of her music video for ”Material Girl.” The next year, they costarred in Shanghai Surprise, which bombed at the box office and was nominated for six Razzie Awards (with Madonna winning for Worst Actress). In the movie, Madonna played a 1930s medical missionary who seeks Penn’s help in locating a stash of opium.
Box Office: A paltry $2.3 million
Relationship Longevity: The marriage lasted perhaps longer than it should have, finally dissolving in 1989. In an intriguing twist, Madonna called Penn the true love of her life in the 1991 documentary Truth or Dare. This probably came as a surprise to Madonna’s then-boyfriend Warren Beatty, whom she met on the set of 1990’s Dick Tracy. She also starred in another box office disaster, 2002’s Swept Away, directed by her then-husband Guy Richie. Suffice it to say, showmances have not been good to Madonna. —Darren Franich

Are they dating? No way they’re actually dating. Well, maybe they’re dating. Yeah, they’re probably dating. Let’s just say they’re dating, okay? (Stewart, in referencing her ”British” boyfriend — Pattinson is from England — has basically done as much.) Questions about their relationship aside, these two are the undisputed box office champs.
Box Office: The five Twilight movies grossed $3.3 billion worldwide, an average of $669 million per movie
Relationship Longevity: As a quartet of four Liverpudlians once said, ”Money can’t buy you love.” After four years, a boatload of smoldering looks, and one vamp-human hybrid child, Robsten was officially (and ironically) outed as a couple when Stewart was spotted cheating with the director of her 2012 hiatus project Snow White and the Huntsman. Officially remaining together throughout the publicity rounds of Breaking Dawn — Part 2, they never technically announced their split, but the couple was considered kaput by mid-2013. For their part, Twihards still believe their love is forever. —Darren Franich

Affleck’s career has mostly been marked by failures with his on- and off-screen lady loves. Though he had a supporting role in then-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow’s beloved period drama Shakespeare in Love in 1998, the couple’s partnership in 2000 plane-crash romantic drama Bounce was basically a bust until it eked out a foreign profit. A few years later, in the middle of a proto-Brangelina media hurricane, he costarred with paramour Jennifer Lopez in 2003’s Gigli (pictured). Lopez also had a tiny role — as Affleck’s dead wife! — in the 2004 Kevin Smith flop Jersey Girl, though I think we can all agree to forget about that one. Affleck later married his Daredevil love interest Jennifer Garner two years after they met on the 2003 popcorn flick.
Box Office: Bounce made $53 million worldwide. Gigli banked a paltry $7.3 million, almost making Jersey Girl‘s $25.2 million take seem respectable — until you realize it cost $35 million to make. Daredevil earned a decent $179 million globally, although we should technically add in the $56 million earned by the Garner-centric spin-off Elektra.
Relationship Longevity: Affleck’s relationships with Paltrow and Lopez were both over by the time their movies appeared in theaters, but he’s been married to Garner since 2005. —Darren Franich

The couple first met on the set of 1963’s Cleopatra, where their doubly adulterous affair turned them into the first great couple of the modern tabloid era. During their first marriage, Burton and Taylor starred in Mike Nichols’ 1966 film adaptation of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (pictured above) as a middle-aged married couple engaged in an escalating battle of insults. Burton and Taylor also starred in 1967’s The Taming of the Shrew, based on William Shakespeare’s play. All told, they made 10 films together.
Box Office: Although Cleopatra was the highest-grossing film of the year with a take of $48 million domestically, the film’s $44 million budget (22 times the original number submitted to 20th Century Fox) made the film — and the relationship it spawned — a watchword for Hollywood excess. Virginia Woolf made less — $40 million — but with a much smaller budget.
Relationship Longevity: Their first marriage lasted 10 years; their second lasted less than a year. —John Young

Beatty had a history of costarring with his girlfriends — Julie Christie in Shampoo, Diane Keaton in Reds, Isabella Adjani in Ishtar — when he met his future wife on the set of Bugsy. They teamed up again for 1994’s Love Affair with less success, though the reboot had to contend with the long shadow of Charles Boyer, Irene Dunn, and pink champagne.
Box Office: Bugsy — $49.1 domestic; Love Affair — $18.2 million
Relationship Longevity: The couple is still together after more than 20 years. —Darren Franich

Barrymore and Long had already dated and broken up before costarring in this underrated romcom gem about two people who try to make a relationship work while pursuing careers that constantly force them to be far away from each other. The couple apparently rekindled their romance during the making of Distance.
Box Office: $42 million worldwide
Relationship Longevity: The couple split up — for the last time — before the film’s release. —Darren Franich

The two originally met while filming the 1968 Disney musical The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band. They reconnected in 1983 while shooting Swing Shift (1984). In the Garry Marshall romantic comedy Overboard, Hawn played a wealthy, married woman who develops amnesia and subsequently falls for the carpenter (Russell) she previously rebuked.
Box Office: Swing Shift earned a meager $6.6 million, while Overboard made $26.7 million domestically.
Relationship Longevity: Still together (and still unmarried) after three decades. —John Young

She was Hollywood’s sweetheart, star of Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail, sort of the Charles Barkley to Julia Roberts’ Michael Jordan. Crowe was the tough-guy breakout star in the massively popular Gladiator. Their affair on the set of this forgotten hostage-negotiation thriller scandalized Hollywood, since Ryan was still married to Dennis Quaid at the time.
Box Office: $62 million worldwide, still shy of its $65 million budget
Relationship Longevity: The couple dated for a little over a year. —Darren Franich

The couple first costarred in 1958’s The Long Hot Summer and married soon afterwards. They appeared on screen together in a total of 10 films, the last of which was 1990’s Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (pictured above).
Box Office: The Long Hot Summer earned $7 million domestically, which roughly tracks to more than $52 million today when you adjust for inflation (and, remember kids, this was well before IMAX and 3-D markups). Mr. & Mrs Bridge just about the same amount, which was less impressive in 1990. Still…
Relationship Longevity: The couple had been married for half a century when Newman passed away in 2008. —Darren Franich

Bower, who had parts in both the Twilight and Harry Potter series, hoped to strike gold a third time with this tale of forbidden love set at a supernatural school (sound familiar?). Alas, audiences weren’t as open to Jace and Clary (Bower and Collins’ characters) as they were to Twilight‘s Bella and Edward.
Box Office: $9.3 million opening weekend — not enough to keep the demons at bay
Relationship Longevity: The pair reportedly broke up around the time of City of Bones‘ release. With sequel City of Ashes in the works, it’s a safe bet their crew and costars are hoping personal tension doesn’t trip up their professional relationship. —Lanford Beard

They met on the set of Bacall’s first film, 1944’s To Have and Have Not, when Bacall was 19 and Bogart was 45, and proceeded to have an affair. (At the time, Bogart was married to actress Mayo Methot.) Bogart and Bacall’s romance continued while shooting their second film together, the classic film noir The Big Sleep (pictured above). They starred in a total of four films together.
Box Office: Financial data from those days is sketchy, but both To Have and Big Sleep were big hits in their day.
Relationship Longevity: The couple married in 1945 and were still together 12 years later when Bogart died. —John Young

The couple met on the set of Heat Vision and Jack (1999), the cult (and unaired) pilot starring Jack Black and Owen Wilson. They were married in May 2000. Four months later, Stiller and Taylor started filming Zoolander. Stiller directed and played the title character, a male model of extraordinarily intellectual gifts, while Taylor appeared as the Time reporter Zoolander falls for. Stiller also tried to woo Taylor in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), with disastrous results.
Box Office: Zoolander earned $60 million globally on the way to becoming a DVD hit. Dodgeball banked $167 million worldwide
Relationship Longevity: Still together. —John Young

Cruise and Kidman’s relationship did not age like fine wine, and it shows in the numbers. The couple met on the set of the 1990 race track flick Days of Thunder and married on Christmas Eve of that year. They paired up on screen twice afterwards, first as Irish immigrants attempting to make their way in 1890s America in Ron Howard’s 1992 epic Far and Away and then as a sexually frustrated Manhattan couple in Stanley Kubrick’s 1999 sexual thriller Eyes Wide Shut (pictured above, with Far and Away).
Box Office: Days of Thunder earned a big $157 million worldwide. Far & Away earned a not-bad $137 million. And Eyes Wide Shut earned $162 million, though it was considered a disappointment given the two-year shoot.
Relationship Longevity: The couple divorced not too long after Eyes Wide Shut in 2001. It seems the complaints about Cruise and Kidman’s lack of chemistry in Eyes Wide Shut weren’t that far off. —John Young

Gosling was an up-and-coming indie actor and McAdams had just finished stealing Mean Girls from Lindsay Lohan when this dewy romantic drama hit theaters. It quickly became a cult classic, a launching point for Saturday Night Live star Andy Samberg’s moonlighting gig as a musical parodist, and the bane of a million boyfriends.
Box Office: $115 million worldwide
Relationship Longevity: Although they apparently had a combustive relationship on-set, McAdams and Gosling dated between 2005 and 2007, reportedly getting engaged at one point. —Darren Franich

The comedy auteur must have been great at amicable splits back in the ’70s. He cast ex-wife Louise Lasser in three films post-divorce and made a whole series of films starring Diane Keaton, whom he dated for a year. Their most famous collaboration, 1977’s Annie Hall (pictured above), was loosely based on their relationship. But Allen was in a relationship with Mia Farrow when he cast her in 13 films between 1982-1992.
Box Office: Annie Hall totaled $38.2 million (about $136 million today). Allen’s biggest Farrow starrer, 1986’s Hannah and Her Sisters made $40 million domestically and was his biggest box office success until 2011’s Midnight in Paris. Allen and Farrow’s lowest-grossing collaboration was 1987’s ”play-on-film” experiment September, which grossed less than $500,000 — though, considering Allen’s typically low budgets, it’s virtually a write-off.
Relationship Longevity: Allen started a relationship with Farrow’s adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, in 1991. Suffice it to say his split from Farrow — when she found out in 1992 — was not amicable. —Darren Franich

Aniston was fresh off her divorce from Brad Pitt when she hooked up with Vince Vaughn, who coincidentally costarred with Pitt in Mr. and Mrs. Smith. (Hollywood: Like high school, but with tabloids!)
Box Office: $204 million worldwide
Relationship Longevity: After dating for a little over a year, Vaughniston broke up in late 2006, proving once and for all that starring in a movie called The Break-Up is probably not a good foundation for a relationship. —Darren Franich

MacGraw was married to legendary film producer Robert Evans when she costarred with McQueen in the noirish tale of a couple on the run. The two began an on-set affair and married in 1973.
Box Office: $52 million worldwide (or about $284 million today)
Relationship Longevity: The marriage lasted until 1978. —Darren Franich

Although Tracy was married to Louise Treadwell from 1923 to his death in 1967, the actor had an on-and-off affair with Hepburn starting with the filming of the 1942 movie Woman of the Year. The pair ultimately starred in nine movies together.
Box Office: The pair were one of the most bankable screen couples in the ’40s, and their final collaboration — 1967’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (pictured above, with 1949’s Adam’s Rib — grossed $56 million domestically — or an astounding $365.8 million today. (Of course, a hot-button topic and the presence of megastar Sidney Poitier didn’t hurt the box office totals.)
Relationship Longevity: The couple’s relationship was always shrouded in mystery, but as recounted in EW columnist Mark Harris’ Pictures at a Revolution the two were living together when Tracy died in 1967. —John Young