It is pretty common knowledge. The gap has narrowed a lot recently, but the difference in money and prestige is big.
Hit tv shows are far more in the public consciousness these days than movies. Most people I know only ever watch a handful of new movies every year. But everyone seems to watch White Lotus, The Bear, Severance, The Pitt, and plenty of others
The notoriety that comes from being in a long-running television show is often a curse. It gets harder for people to separate them from the role they play and they often become typecast.
TV does seem to be a larger part of the cultural conversation these days (though Sinners, Weapons, and OBAA have generated a good amount of cultural buzz in the last year), but it is still hard for the actors to move past it once a show ends. Rogan stays relevant because he started as a successful movie star and then created a hit show. It seems harder to go the other way. The Game of Thrones actors haven’t stayed relevant since it ended and the stranger things kids already seemed destined to become trivia questions.
Sophie Turner has been pretty relevant for various reasons, some of it personal life but yeah. Harrington is in another HBO prestige show. I think he’s still pretty relevant. all the older actor main charcaters were mostly already relevant in some way or another, or past their prime (Addy and Bean come to mind). I guess NCW is the one there that kinda faded after the show. Surprising given his combo of good acting and handsomeness haha. Gwendolyn’s Christie has been able to stay pretty relevant between doing Star Wars and Wednesday. Richard Madden is the one that surprises me as not being a much bigger name now. He did some big movie roles but they tanked (looking at you, Eternals) or that just didn’t blow him up any further. I know he’s done some tv shows since then and won a GG for one of them but I don’t think he’s “relevant” in the way we’re talking.
One of the issues in the idea of breaking out is that being a major character of a successful show is breaking out. The guy who played Kevin in The Office is probably never going to be a lead character in a major blockbuster but being Kevin in The Office is more successful than 99 percent of the people who move to Los Angeles and struggle to get a Burger King commercial or to be Frightened Inmate Number 2. It is like the idea of a Madden Curse. The fact that you were chosen as the Madden cover athlete usually means you just had one of the best seasons any player has ever had so when your next season is not as good it is not a curse but just regression toward the mean.
Being the fourth lead in a movie that bombed financially is a far cry from being one of the biggest comedy stars of the late 2000's-2010's. That is not to say anything about quality, though. The Fabelmans is great and he is good in it. His best leading role was Observe and Report, but that is not nearly as popular as some of his other roles. It happens to most comedy stars. Jim Carrey is not nearly as big as he was in the 90's. Mike Myers might as well be in the witness protection program. Will Ferrell is long removed from the Anchorman days. Adam Sandler has sort of bucked that trend and stayed famous for a lot longer.
Did Michael Cera fall off faster? He was everywhere for a few years after Arrested Development. Regarding TV stars branching out and getting bigger, it is funny that shows that failed like Arrested Development or The Wire turn out more major actors than some genuine hits.
Also I think Rogen the last few years has pivoted more to being a producer. He and Evan Goldberg produce a lot of projects, including The Studio. He basically became the new Judd Apatow. He acts as a side project now basically, producing is his main gig. I don't see that as "falling off" as much him leveling up in Hollywood.
Did the redhead from Harry Potter ever do anything big after being in such a huge franchise? That and the werewolf from Twilight are pretty big ones.
Rogen was also main voice cast on a hugely successful billion dollar grossing animated movie in 2023.
He was a big part of the Shymalan series Servant for like 5 years on Apple TV, and also in Shymalan’s Knock At The Cabin
He also is gonna be in Ti West's adaptation of A Christmas Carol with Johnny Depp later this year. He basically has done theatre, horror stuff, and some British TV since Harry Potter ended. I also think he's been in a couple Ed Sheeran videos
Jaime Lannister not taking off is a weird one because he has those very typical conventionally attractive Hollywood looks.
Never heard of it. The biggest thing I have seen him in other than Game of Thrones is when a basketball player stops in his tracks when he sees him in the audience.