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Top 10 Highest paid Hollywood stars for a single film.

  • Writer: OnPoints Media
    OnPoints Media
  • Jan 21, 2021
  • 4 min read

Money.


Without it we wouldn't survive, unless you were John Rambo walking about the woods killing pigs with a stick.


For most of us we have to go to work, we wish we didn't but that's how normal people tend to earn money. If your lucky enough to earn more then the national average wage in the UK (£31,461) then you might think you have a decent disposable income...and that might be the case compared to other "normal" people. Compare that to Hollywood wages however and it becomes evident that maybe we should have tried harder during the annual school rendition of "The Nativity".


This is the Top 10 Highest paid actors/actresses for a single role.

*some of these figures reflect a % of the movies gross.


10. Sandra Bullock - Gravity (2013) - $70,000,000+

2013's Gravity is a fantastic film, mostly filmed on a sound stage with the actors flying about on cables it perfectly captures the intense quiet of space and tension that might come from attempting to fix a space ship...in space...where there's no Oxygen. It bagged Oscars in multiple categories including Best Director for Alfonso Cuaron, a nomination for Best Film and a nomination for Sandra Bullock as Best Lead Actress.

9. Tom Hanks - Forrest Gump (1994) - $70,000,000+

Who doesn't love this film?! Be honest, how many time's have you seen it? TRIVIA - Tom Hanks' accent for Forrest Gump is taken from a first meeting he had with the actor playing Young Forrest (Michael Connor Humphreys). Hanks also won the Academy award for Best Actor.

8. Tom Cruise - Mission Impossible (1996) - $70,000,000+

Another classic. Love him or hate him, you can't deny that his early work in the late 80's and early to mid 90's was some of his best. Mission Impossible set the bar very high for action movies and started one of the most successful film franchises in film history. It's also not the last time Tom will feature on this list...

7. Robert Downey Jr - Avengers Infinity War (2018) - $75,000,000

He had to appear somewhere, the none traditional action star has had a very up and down career. He basically had to make it in Hollywood twice due to nobody wanting to touch him in the late 2000's. A good friend of his John Favreau pretty much begged the studio to take him on for Iron Man (2008). We're glad he did as over the last 10 years we have been treated to not only one of the best on screen Comic Book characters of all time, but the greatest franchise in film history, culminating in Avengers Endgame (2019) becoming the highest grossing film of all time. Thanks John.

6. Robert Downey Jr - Iron Man 3 (2013) - $75,000,000

What have we not already said...although we agree it's not the best Iron Man movie, it's certainly not the worst Marvel movie *cough* Thor 2 *cough*, we are eternally glad it happened, linking the previous Marvel phase to the next.

5. Bruce Willis - The Sixth Sense (1999) - $100,000,000

Wow...we genuinely didn't think we would be writing his name in this list especially for this movie, maybe a Die Hard. It just goes to show that in the late 90's Bruce was big news, fresh off the back of the highly successful Armageddon (1998) The Sixth Sense was a huge movie, although Director M Night Shyamalan has faded into making almost indie type movies of late, this was a true box office success raking in $553,000,000. No wonder they paid him so much.

4. Tom Cruise - Mission Impossible 2 (2000) - $100,000,000

They can't all be winners. It happened, lets deal with it and move on.

3. Tom Cruise - War of the Worlds (2005) - $100,000,000

Look, we love Tom Cruise, we can't deny that he probably is the biggest action star to ever come out of Hollywood and for that we salute him. He made $200,000,000 from two very poor movies, in fairness War of the Worlds is not as bad as MI2 but still, $200,000,000!

2. Will Smith - Men In Black 3 (2012) - $100,000,000

There is a bit of trend here, crappy movies pay big. It wasn't terrible but it certainly wasn't anywhere near as good as the MiB 1 & 2. Thankfully they realised the mistake and haven't made anymore since......honestly, don't even bother checking, you'll only be disappointed.

Drum roll please.


1. Keanu Reeves - The Matrix Reloaded & Revolutions (2003) - $156,000,000

Yep, the most badass nice guy in the whole of the world. The Best worst actor in 2003 made $153,000,000. It's been well documented that he gave most of his paycheck away from the first Matrix movie to the special effects team. You'd be forgiven for thinking money makes you different, while that is true for most people, it certainly isn't true for Keanu Reeves. He does a lot for charity and still takes the subway when he travels around the city.


Original content from OnPoints Media.

Check out the Podcast "The Absolutely Pointless Podcast" available on Spotify now.

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