Gerard Butler looks as if he is praying for a hit movie—because he certainly needs one.

The Scottish actor, who made his feature film debut in 1997 playing an unnamed seaman in the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies, has survived a series of flops that would probably have ended the career of most other actors.

He has certainly been given more chances than most. From his title role in Phantom of the Opera onwards, he has been handed.

starring roles in a succession of Hollywood movies that instead of being the hits the studios expected, turned out to be major flops.

His only legitimate hit was 300 back in 2006. Since then his movies have included Gamer, The Ugly Truth, The Bounty Hunter, P.S. I Love You, Machine Gun Preacher, Coriolanus and two movies released almost simultaneously in the last few months, Playing for Keeps and Chasing Mavericks —all of which bombed at the box office.

As one Los Angeles radio host commented, an actor like Gerard Butler should at least be able to open a film with a gross higher than the value of his home.

Is it the fault of the actor, his agents or the studios marketing the movies?

Maybe his screen fortunes will turn around in the coming year. After all, he has two new movies already in the can awaiting release and four more in production.

Surely, he seems to be praying, one of them will be a hit.