Star billing (cinema)

[Julien-FR]

Good morning everyone, I hope you are well.

I would need to translate the following trivia from the IMDB website, it concerns the movie Rush Hour 3.

"[This was the first movie in the franchise where] Chris Tucker had star billing in the cast."

However, I am not sure what "star billing" means here. Because obviously, Chris Tucker was considered a leading actor/co-star in the first two Rush Hour films. Does it mean his appears first in the end generic? Before Jackie Chan's name for the first time?

So far, my translation would be, "Il s'agit du premier film de la franchise dans lequel Chris Tucker était crédité en tant qu'acteur vedette". But it does not make a lot of sense to me.

Anyway, will appreciate your help!

Thanks,
Julien

 

[moustic]

Il était en tête d'affiche.

tête d'affiche nf	(Cinéma : premier rôle)	top billing n
		top of the bill n
		star⇒ vtr

 

[Julien-FR]

Thanks, but he was "tête d'affiche" since the first Rush Hour, no?

 

[moustic]

Sorry I haven't seen the films.
The author of the text seems to have made a mistake...

 

[Julien-FR]

Hmm, maybe yes. Or maybe it means something else than "co-star". In any case, thanks for the help.

 

[Kecha]

According to Wikipedia, Tucker was paid more than Chan in the third film.
It's not clear that it was not the case before, but the whole project for the first film was to have Chan on equal footing with the American role (although a huge star in Asia, Chan was not well-known in America then).

 

[Julien-FR]

Thank you Kecha. I had not thought about the actors' pay but that's an interesting lead. I understand this star billing idea is not very clear, I think I need to ask a clarification to the customer.

 

[Julien-FR]

If anyone's curious, I got an answer. And my assumption about the name order is apparently correct, Tucker's name appears above (so, appears first, here, I assume).