That harsh sentence, written on June 12 by Rick Bentley in The Fresno Bee in California, is as good an example as any of the prevailing sentiment about Murphy these days. With two big flops in a row, Imagine That and Meet Dave, another risky project on the way, A Thousand Words, and a diva reputation, people seem to be confused. Why does Hollywood keep hiring this man?

The answer offers insights into how the gears of the modern motion picture business grind.

Murphy is still considered Hollywood royalty. One reason is that, contrary to conventional wisdom, studios have long memories.

People who prophesied that his career was over in 2002 with The Adventures of Pluto Nash which cost about $100 million to make but only sold about $7 million worldwide in tickets, looked awfully foolish when Norbit, five years later, sold $159 million worldwide in tickets and was a smash on DVD.

“He is explosive, given the right project, the right circumstances, the right concept, the right director,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, the chief executive of DreamWorks Animation. But has Murphy has lost his movie mojo? “Absolute nonsense,” Katzenberg said.

Murphy, 48, is one of a declining number of actors whose name alone can get a movie made. Murphy still asks for $20 million a picture and a cut of the gross

“The challenge with Eddie is that you have to put his brand on the right tin can,” said the consultant James Ulmer who 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.”

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

That’s not to say Murphy isn’t paying a price for his track record. Paramount recently rejected a biopic about Richard Pryor that had Murphy attached to star. The fourth Beverly Hills Cop is also stalled.

Murphy has other potential projects floating around—a third Nutty Professor is in development—and he has a guaranteed hit next spring in DreamWorks’ Shrek Forever After in which he reprises his vocal role as the sassy Donkey.But Murphy hasn’t been doing himself many favours when it comes to staying in Hollywood’s good graces. It didn’t help when he fought a paternity claim by the former Spice Girl Melanie Brown in 2007, only to have a DNA test prove him wrong.

And he can be difficult when it comes to promoting movies. He arrived at the Imagine That press junket nearly two hours late and was 45 minutes late to the premiere. Last summer, he failed to attend the Los Angeles premiere of Meet Dave.

Murphy’s next chance for a comeback will be early next year, when Paramount plans to release A Thousand Words, a high-concept comedic drama about a fast-talking agent who realises he only has 1,000 words left to utter before he dies.

It’s a risky bet, and not just because there is no fat suit involved. The $60 million movie is something of a stepchild at the studio, having been put into production by DreamWorks Pictures, which left the project behind when it cut corporate ties to Paramount last year.