Getting hired to play the main lead in a huge movie is basically like winning the lottery. The reason why I am saying this is because actors get paid millions of dollars to portray some of our favorite movie characters. They always claim that they take on roles based on how much they love the script or just because they want to make fans happy, but this is highly unlikely when they are more than probably influenced to take roles just because there’s a huge paycheck waiting for them.
Money is what makes the world go around and who could ever say no to a multi million dollar paycheck? Well, this is why we get to see huge actors such as Tom Cruise or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in weird movies every year. I believe it’s pretty clear that they do it for the paycheck and don’t actually care about the script. Here are 25 actors that probably took on these huge roles only for the money.
Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise definitely liked the script for “War of the Worlds” but do you want to know what he liked even better? His 100 million dollar paycheck!
Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson is one of the original Jokers and he was paid 6 million dollars for that role. It doesn’t seem like an exorbitant amount of money, right? Well, you should also know that he took a share of the sales which ended up boosting his bank account with 60 million dollars.
Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis didn’t want to receive a salary for “The Sixth Sense” and instead he convinced his employer to give him a share of the movie’s gross profits. This was a great decision for Bruce Willis because he received 120 million dollars in the end.
Leonardo Dicaprio
Inception is a great movie and all, but you know what really influenced Leonardo Dicaprio to play in it? His 59 million dollars paycheck!
Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp’s name is tied to the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise because he’s been playing in it since 2003. Are you wondering why he isn’t getting bored of playing the same role every year? Well, he’s made somewhere around 185 million dollars just by playing the famous Captain Jack Sparrow.
Harrison Ford
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull didn’t make too much money but this didn’t upset Harrison Ford at all since he still got his 65 million dollars anyways.
Keanu Reeves
Keanu Reeves is a versatile actor that played many awesome roles over the years but his biggest one has to be Neo, from the Matrix trilogy. Keanu Reeves got paid 262 million dollars between 1999 and 2003 in order to keep acting as Neo.
Robert Downey, Jr.
Robert Downey, Jr. is known for playing Marvel’s Ironman and there is no one who could do it better than him. This is why he was able to ask for 50 million dollars in order to play in The Avengers (2012).
Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks was initially going to receive 10 million dollars for playing Forest Gump but he gave up half of his paycheck in exchange for movie gross shares which ended up netting him somewhere around 70 million dollars.
Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise appears once again on our list because he received 290 million dollars in total for playing in the Mission Impossible franchise.
Cameron Diaz
Many people started wondering why did Cameron Diaz decide to star in Bad Teacher back in 2011. I don’t know what made her take on that role but I bet that her 45 million dollar paycheck influenced her a bit.
Sandra Bullock
Sandra Bullock is another actor that made a great decision by taking on shares of the movie’s profits because she ended up taking in over 70 million dollars for playing in Gravity.
Mark Wahlberg
Mark Wahlberg is known for being very active and always taking on new roles. The reason why he is doing that is that his rate is about 28 million dollars for every movie he does.
Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker doesn’t have too many big budget movies under her belt but she is still getting paid 30 million dollars to play in Sex and the City sequels.
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie is one of the world’s biggest stars and it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that she asks for a minimum of 30 million dollars per movie.
Leonardo DiCaprio
Titanic is the movie that made Leonardo Dicaprio famous and even though this was his big break, he still received the whopping amount of 40 million dollars for playing in it.
Robert Downey Jr.
In one of the previous pages, I’ve shown you how much Robert Downey Jr. asks in order to reprise his Ironman role, but his other roles aren’t small either! Movie studios need to offer at least 31 million dollars just so they can get Robert Downey Jr.’s attention.
Ben Stiller
Ben Stiller is one of the greatest comedy actors that ever lived and this is why he asks for at least 34 million dollars per movie.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger received a “modest” salary of $29,250,000 in order to play in Terminator 3 but he also took 20 percent shares of the movie’s entire gross (433 million) which you can imagine how much it increased his salary.
Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt is one of the most charismatic actors in Hollywood and this is why he’s great in every role he takes. This is also what gives him the leverage to ask for a minimum of 30 million dollars for every movie he makes.
Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson has played in a bunch of great movies but his most lucrative one was Lethal Weapon 4 for which he made somewhere around 40 million dollars.
Will Smith
The reason why Will Smith is included on our list is that he’s made over 100 million dollars for playing in Men in Black 3.
Adam Sandler
Even though Adam Sandler’s latest movies have not been so great, this doesn’t mean that he isn’t able to ask for 40 million dollars per movie!
Vin Diesel
Vin Diesel is mostly known for playing in the Fast and Furious franchise and this level of stardom gives him the leverage to ask for 35 million dollars for every movie he plays in.
Sofia Vergara
Sofia Vergara is on top of Hollywood right now and her going rate per movie is 43 million dollars.