Performance Or Plot?

When one considers why a film succeeds, there are many factors to consider. The greatest films of all time succeed because they fire on all cylinders: they have great plots, captivating screenplays, iconic performances, and skillful direction. Films like CITIZEN KANE, THE WIZARD OF OZ, GONE WITH THE WIND, and THE GODFATHER show how all of these skills come together in glorious ways. But in this day and age, film success is quantified and predicted based on sure-fire hooks or gimmicky casting. The question is - which is the more important ingredient for success? SAW was a film that was successful entirely because of its plotting, particularly the twist ending that shocked everyone so thoroughly. Performance had nothing at all to do with the success of the film; in fact, the film succeeded in spite of the performances, which were uniformly bad. To some degree THE MATRIX falls into this category; the performances are almost all bland and lifeless, but the heady plot machinations (and some revolutionary special effects) carried the film to great box office success and critical acclaim. Another example might be mechanical action films like SPEED or TWISTER, whose plot devices are infinitely more interesting than the people on the screen. On the other hand, a film like NAPOLEON DYNAMITE had almost no plot - or even connecting tissue between scenes - yet the performances were so unique that they carried that film to huge box office numbers. The same goes for other comedies like BORAT or OLD SCHOOL, which are rescued from plotless oblivion thanks to some brilliant comedic performances. Another example of this might be a film like TOP GUN, which had no real plot at all, but featured a smiling Tom Cruise at the height of his sexual powers. At the moment, Hollywood is desperately looking for the next "hook" film to quickly throw out into theaters for the fast buck. That's why we see a host of horror films still trying to replicate the SAW/THE SIXTH SENSE twist film formula. Hollywood knows that they can plop any actor into a film like that, and it will sell based solely on its concept. So I ask you ... what do you consider the bigger ingredient? The performance or the plotting?