29 of the highest-paid film deals of all time, ranked: from Leonardo DiCaprio’s payday for Killers of the Flower Moon and Margot Robbie’s Barbie bonuses, to Robert Downey Jr becoming Marvel’s No 1

Jan 13 , 2024

Margot Robbie, Will Smith and Tom Cruise all received huge pay cheques from the films Barbie, Men in Black 3 and Top Gun: Maverick, respectively. Photos: AFP, TNS, Reuters

Tinseltown’s greats like Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Cruise can still command hefty sums upfront, but actors have also won big by negotiating back-end profits, like Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan

Will Smith made US$100m from Men in Black 3 while Keanu Reeves got a combined pay of US$250m for The Matrix trilogy; meanwhile, Dwayne Johnson takes home US$50m for Amazon Studios’ upcoming Red One

Hollywood, it seems, ain’t what it used to be.

In the post-streaming age, it’s rare for actors to bring in quite the same mammoth salaries – at least compared to the glory days when audiences were drawn to a film primarily based on its leading star.

Years ago, if a certain actor’s name was attached to a film, it almost guaranteed success. In the 90s, Will Smith, Tom Cruise and Jim Carrey were paid massive salaries simply because they attracted a crowd.

For instance, Carrey was paid US$20 million – a rarity today – for The Cable Guy in 1996, because it was expected he could deliver a huge opening weekend.

Jim Carrey’s salary for The Cable Guy accounted for half the film’s US$40 million budget. Photo: AP

Now, audiences are more attracted to franchises than its stars. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, for instance, dominated the box office for the last decade (to be fair, Robert Downey Jr, who played Iron Man, made bank off of those films).

But some actors still command the recognition and leverage to strike gigantic deals, particularly Smith, Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio in a still from The Killers of the Flower Moon. Photo: Apple TV+

And with the rise of streaming services, actors find that the likes of Netflix and Apple aren’t afraid to shell out tens of millions of dollars too. Some movie stars in streaming films snag such big paydays because they’re granted a streaming back-end buyout, which aims to make up for box-office losses.

We ranked the highest-paid film roles of all time that earned actors more than US$25 million. Some actors – like Smith, DiCaprio, Cruise and Hanks – appear multiple times on this list.

Let’s take a look …