Brad Pitt, a familiar name in Hollywood that features on top of lists of highest paid actors, said that the days when actors could demand a paycheck of $10 million and above were as good as over.
Describing the state of Hollywood studios as being the decline of actors’ salaries, Pitt said, “That arithmetic doesn’t really work right now… that deal’s not flying these days. A lot of the studios have been challenged because of the economic downturn as well so they’ve been betting on bigger, more tent pole kinds of things. At the same time that opens up a vacuum for really interesting new film makers to come in.”
He also adds that the only course of action is to take the roles for the sake of roles and balance the economics like everyone else does –which says a lot about why he took about $25 million between May 2011-12.
There’s another way by which actors do tend to rake in the big bucks and that is to agree to a smaller upfront salary while also enjoying a slice of the profits that the movie makes worldwide. Of course, this only works unless you’re a major Hollywood star.
While actors like DiCaprio and Law are some of these actors who can make demands, considering their star-power, Tom Cruise still remains on top of Hollywood’s A-List of actors, and in terms of salaries’, by taking home $75 million.
While a large amount of Cruise’s paycheck comes from the $700 million that Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol made, his closest competitors are Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam Sandler and Dwayne Johnson.