It's a testament to our collective lack of imagination that we love to worship onscreen couples in real life. If their make-out sessions are that hot in a movie, why wouldn't two beautiful people be hooking up when the cameras stop rolling too? Oh, right, it's acting. Except, that is, when it isn't.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt act out a troubled marriage in By the Sea — out in UK cinemas this week – and some of us will go see it just to pretend it's a peek into what their marriage is like behind closed doors. The same way audiences flocked to see Bogart and Bacall, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, and even Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson.

But does real love translate smoothly into fiction? Or does it make for bad acting? Here we've put on our stat nerd caps and collected the data on 15 real life pairings who acted together in a film when they were already an established couple. How much did critics love their pairing? How much bank did they make for it? Did the Academy dig it? And did they live happily ever after? Most of the results are mixed, except one: They do, in fact, turn out to be a huge box-office draw. Read on.