The Biggest Movie Star Paydays of All Time

The first Hollywood star to command a standard $20-million asking price, Canadian Jim Carrey took a huge gamble on his 2006 comedy Yes Man when, in order to keep production costs low enough to get the film made, he agreed to take no salary at all. What he did take, however, was 32.6 per cent of the gross profits (after production and marketing costs had been recouped). When the film grossed a respectable $223 million at the box office, Carrey reportedly wound up with an estimated $30 million.

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Using the leverage she earned from winning an Oscar for The Blind Side, Sandra Bullock negotiated a $20-million upfront salary in addition to 15 per cent of first-dollar gross profits for the sci-fi flick Gravity, which resulted in a hefty payday estimated at $77 million.

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Tom Cruise had a tight 10-week window to shoot Steven Spielberg’s big-budget sci-fi remake before he was required on the set of Mission: Impossible III. In order to fast track the script and get the US$132-million budget approved, he passed up his salary and instead settled for 20 per cent of the profits. When The War of the Worlds became a huge international blockbuster, Cruise’s take was an estimated $100 million.

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Denzel Washington earned a hefty $40 million for playing real-life criminal Frank Lucas in 2007’s American Gangster — because he was paid twice! With a $20-mil/movie asking price, Washington had a “pay or play” deal that kicked in when the film was scrapped after he had signed on, forcing the studio to pay him in full. When the project was unexpectedly revived a year later and actually made, Washington was paid his salary for a second time — double the income for the same job!

When he landed the role of iconic comic-book villain The Joker in 1989's Batman, Jack Nicholson took a pay cut, with a salary of $6 million instead of his usual $10-mil asking price. In exchange, Nicholson was given a percentage of the profits — which paid off big when the film was a huge hit. Nicholson is estimated to have earned a cool $50 million for playing The Joker.

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At the time it was made, director Christopher Nolan’s Inception was seen as a risky venture by its studio, so in order to get it made, star Leonardo DiCaprio decided to forego his usual $20-million salary. Instead, he and Nolan inked a rare deal for first-dollar gross points if the film was a hit (meaning their money would come right off the top of gross ticket sales without having to wait for the studio to earn its money back first). DiCaprio’s bet paid off, and he raked somewhere between $50 million and $60 million for his gamble.

Run, Forrest, run — all the way to the bank! When negotiating his deal for Forrest Gump, star Tom Hanks wisely held out for a share of the film’s profits; not only did the role earn him a Best Actor Oscar, it also deposited an estimated $60 million in his bank account. Hanks would ink a similar deal when he made Saving Private Ryan, which led to a payday estimated at being somewhere between $30-$40 million.

Harrison Ford catapulted to the top spot in Forbes’ list of 2009’s highest-earning movie stars with annual earnings of $65 million — all from one movie! That movie, in which he resurrected Indiana Jones in The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, saw him negotiate a profit-participation deal that rewarded him based on the film’s success. When the film earned more than US$750 million internationally, Ford walked away with $65 mil, the biggest payday of his career for a single movie. A few years later, Ford raked in a reported $34 million via a similar deal when he resurrected Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

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Sir Alec Guinness was the only “name” actor cast in Star Wars alongside then-unknowns Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill. As a result, he not only wrangled the highest salary of all the actors — $150,000 — he was also given a 2 per cent cut of the gross. When the film wound up being a monster hit, that 2% translated into more than $6 million during his lifetime, more than he earned from all his other films combined. In the years after Sir Alec’s death in 2000, however, his estate really reaped the benefits of the deal; according to estimates, playing Obi-Wan Kenobi has resulted in earnings of more than $80 million — and counting!

According to reports, the studio was far more desperate to make another sequel to Men in Black than star Will Smith was. As enticement to return for the third instalment, Smith was given not only his $20-million asking price, but also a percentage of the profits from the ticket sales and home video. When the dust settled, the former Fresh Prince of Bel Air star is estimated to have pocketed a cool $100 million for his trouble.

Bruce Willis loved the twist-driven script for The Sixth Sense, but the movie — from rookie director M. Night Shyamalan — would never have gotten made had Willis demanded his usual US$20-mil salary. Instead, he reduced his rate to US$14 million (still a huge chunk of the film’s modest $40-million budget) and negotiated a 17 per cent profit-participation deal; when the film became a worldwide smash with an international box office take of nearly US$700 million, Willis wound up earning an estimated US$120 million!

Once a Hollywood pariah due to his well-documented addiction issues — at one point, no insurance company would touch him — Robert Downey Jr. is now one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars. He was able to parlay the massive success of Iron Man into a US$50-million payday for The Avengers. However, that now looks like chump change compared to reports he’ll be pocketing an astounding $200 million for the two-part Avengers: Infinity War sequels.

Keanu Reeves was paid $10 million for The Matrix, in addition to a sweet back-end deal reported to be 10 per cent of the gross. When the movie became a huge smash, the Canadian-born actor earned a bundle, and negotiated $15-mil per movie plus 15 per cent of the gross for the sci-fi film’s two sequels. While estimates of how much he earned are all over the map, some reports peg his earnings from all three movies at a whopping US$260 million (others estimate it at closer to US$100 million). Meanwhile, a famous story (which may or may not be an urban legend) claims that Reeves divvied up a cut of his percentage ($80 million worth) to reward the members of the crew who worked on the movies with him.

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Tom Cruise was star and producer on 1996's Mission: Impossible, which allowed him to negotiate a chunk of the film’s profits. This led him to enjoy an estimated $70 million when the film became an international blockbuster. Employing similar deals for the film’s sequels, Cruise has reportedly earned a whopping $285 million — and counting — from this seemingly unstoppable franchise.

Despite reports of his recent financial struggles, Johnny Depp made a fortune by playing Jack Sparrow in all those Pirates of the Caribbean movies. How much of a fortune? That’s not easy to pin down, but some estimates place his total earnings from the Disney franchise at north of $300 million.

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