Flop No. 1: Meet Dave. Flop No. 2: Imagine That. Despite the back-to-back theatrical flameouts, Eddie Murphy is still enough of a name that studios are willing to bank millions in movie production costs behind him — to a point:

Mr. Murphy, 48, is one of a declining number of actors whose name alone can get a movie made. While studios are increasingly balking at paying top dollar for brand-name actors — and Mr. Murphy still asks for $20 million a picture and a cut of the gross — they still want to be in business with them because they believe it lessens their risk.

“The challenge with Eddie is that you have to put his brand on the right tin can,” said the consultant James Ulmer, who compiles the biannual report “The Ulmer Scale,” which rates the global bankability of actors. “His audiences are very straitjacketed in their expectations of him, and by that I mostly mean fat suit, fat suit, fat suit.”

In addition Mr. Murphy’s name is a marketing hook on a DVD, and he remains one of the few American comedians who can deliver results overseas.

This is probably just my bias, but I say that Murphy is worth watching only when he lets it rip with the adult material. The Disneyfication he underwent with Daddy Day Care and the like always seemed like odd fits (the Shrek voiceover work doesn’t really count). His last big hit was Norbit, and while it was pretty horrible (yes, I saw it) and gimmicky with the fat suits and multiple roles, it was an R-rated return to Murphy’s raunchy comedic roots. He needs to focus on more of that.