Making serious bank: the 10 biggest payouts in acting history
For those lucky enough to make it to the summit of the A-list, acting can be a hugely lucrative job, with the biggest and most popular stars in the business regularly pocketing tens of millions of dollars for a single role.
In a practice that dates right back to Jack Nicholson’s Joker in Tim Burton’s Batman, though, the highest-earning stars don’t always pocket the heftiest salaries. Instead, profit participation deals and backend fees are where the majority of the money comes from, with actors earning more dependent on box office performance and merchandise sales.
For instance, Robert Downey Jr is estimated to have earned at least half a billion dollars from playing the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Tony Stark, and he was paid $500,000 upfront for the first Iron Man. Even though he regularly commanded a flat fee north of $20million for the rest of his appearances, it was those box office milestones that kept burnishing his bank balance.
Will Smith cleared $100m from Men in Black III, Keanu Reeves took in more than $150m from the second and third Matrix flicks, Bruce Willis walked away with nine figures from The Sixth Sense, and Tom Cruise has made a habit of making that sort of bank. Again, their salaries accounted for a quarter of that total at best.
In terms of the highest salaries paid before a single frame has been shot, the usual suspects are all present and accounted for, with the surprising exception of Cruise. Of the ten top-earning roles in Hollywood history, three superstars appear twice, and the majority of the films are high-profile franchise titles.
The script for Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War was initially written without Downey Jr, but when it was decided that his presence was required after all, it set the studio back a cool $40m. It was only a supporting part, too, unlike Will Smith’s ‘Best Actor’-winning turn in biopic King Richard netting him the same substantial payday.
Smith pocketed $35m for Emancipation due largely to the fact it was a streaming movie and top dollar was required to secure his services, which is also the reason why Netflix stumped up $30m to snag Leonardo DiCaprio for Adam McKay’s star-studded disaster comedy Don’t Look Up.
Even though the film was released in 1998, Mel Gibson is still part of the club after cashing a $30m cheque for Lethal Weapon 4, while the lack of James Cameron saw a fat stack of cash deployed as the easiest way to lure Arnold Schwarzenegger back for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
These are astronomically ludicrous numbers at the end of the day, but what makes it even more galling is that in the majority of instances, those eye-watering salaries were only a fraction of what the actors earned once the films in question had finished up their theatrical runs.
10 biggest payouts in acting history:
- Robert Downey Jr (Captain America: Civil War, $40 million)
- Will Smith (King Richard, $40 million)
- Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, $35 million)
- Will Smith (Emancipation, $35 million)
- Keanu Reeves (The Matrix Reloaded/The Matrix Revolutions, $30 million)
- Mel Gibson (Lethal Weapon 4, $30 million)
- Leonardo DiCaprio (Don’t Look Up, $30 million)
- Leonardo DiCaprio (Killers of the Flower Moon, $30 million)
- Arnold Schwarzenegger (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, $29.25 million)
- Robert Downey Jr (Avengers: Endgame, $20 million)
