(Bloomberg) — Stars are losing some of their shine in Hollywood, not that any studio bosses have complained.

Of this year's top five films, only "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" boasts a bona-fide star, Shia LaBeouf, whose credits include the last "Indiana Jones" picture and the thriller "Eagle Eye."

The biggest name in Walt Disney Co.'s animated "Up," the year's No. 2 film with $287.4 million in U.S. sales, is Ed Asner. The William Shatner-less "Star Trek" flew to $255.3 million in sales with a cast of mostly unknowns. "The celebrity of stars, which gave some certainty to the financial bigwigs, has shifted to franchises and sequels," said Peter Guber, the former chief executive officer of Sony Pictures Entertainment. "That's where the certainty lies."

Big-name actors played a larger role last year, when Heath Ledger, Robert Downey Jr., Harrison Ford and Will Smith each starred in a top-five film.

The shift reflects the studios' view that sequels and franchises from popular books or comics are more-certain moneymakers. "Star Trek," "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," 2009's biggest movie so far, are based on well-known properties.

"It gives us more flexibility to find the right actor, the right director," said David Maisel, chairman of Marvel Studios, the unit of New York-based Marvel Entertainment Inc. that makes the "Iron Man" movies. Maisel spoke last month at a conference sponsored by Fortune magazine in Pasadena, California.

Star-driven pictures haven't fared as well in 2009. Sony Corp.'s "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3," featuring Denzel Washington and John Travolta, cost about $100 million to make and has taken in $83 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, a researcher and web site owned by Amazon.com Inc.

"Public Enemies," with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, also cost about $100 million to make and has collected $144 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, which is based in Sherman Oaks, California.

Last year's No. 1 film, "The Dark Knight," collected in $533 million in domestic sales, lifted by Ledger's performance as the Joker and publicity surrounding his death.

Downey was featured in No. 2 "Iron Man," and Ford reprised his successful role in "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" in the No. 3 spot. Smith came in fourth in "Hancock." followed by "Wall-E" from Burbank, California-based Disney's Pixar.

The global box office reflects the same trends, with two or three star-driven films making the top 10 this year, compared with as many as six at the same time a year earlier. The shift in what's working at theatres coincides with efforts to change how players are paid, as movie studios seek to cut costs in response to falling DVD sales. Sony Pictures, based in Culver City, California, and others are seeking to limit up front fees and have creative talent share a picture's risks.

"Over the next 18 months I think you're going to see a batch of films where there's a lot more of these partnership elements with the talent," Rob Wiesenthal, chief financial officer of Sony Corp.'s U.S. unit, said at the Fortune event.

The trade publication Variety reported in January that Jim Carrey passed up his usual pay for the Warner Bros. film "Yes Man" in exchange for a 33 percent stake in the movie. That cut the production cost by $22 million to $53 million, Variety said.

Films costs are rising. The average outlay to make and market a film by a major studio increased 35 percent to $106.6 million in 2007 from $78.7 million in 2001, according to the Motion Picture Association of America, based in Sherman Oaks.

While box-office sales have risen this year, DVD purchases and rentals in the U.S. fell 5.5 percent to $22.4 billion in 2008 and continue to drop this year, according to the Digital Entertainment Group, a trade association based in Los Angeles.

"There is pressure on all salaries, cash and participation, because there is pressure on costs," said Guber, now chairman of Los Angeles-based Mandalay Entertainment Group.

The company's credits include "Donnie Brasco" and Martin Scorsese's future biographical film about Frank Sinatra, according to IMDB.com, an Amazon-owned industry web site.

The change may not last. One or two star-driven hits would likely shift leverage back to actors, Guber said.

Shares of media companies have risen this year, with the box office and expectations that their cable and broadcast businesses will benefit from a rebound in advertising sales.

New York-based Time Warner, up 27 percent this year, fell 9 cents to $28.25 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Disney fell 25 cents to $26.44 and has gained 17 percent this year. Viacom Inc., whose Paramount unit distributed "Star Trek" and "Transformers," gained 22 cents to $25.21 and has advanced 32 percent.

Tokyo-based Sony rose 31 cents to $28.65 and has risen 31 percent. GE, which gets 9.1 percent of revenue from entertainment, fell 13 cents to $14.57 has declined 10 percent this year.

Hollywood's highest-paid stars include Russell Crowe, Tom Hanks, Depp, Smith and Washington, all of whom have earned $20 million for some films, according to IMDB.com.