Stars Aren’t Making the $$$$

Stars aren’t being paid quite as much as they were a decade ago, according to a report in Variety. In the early aughts, household names like Julia Roberts, Will Smith, Tom Hanks and Jim Carrey routinely banked $20 million or more for every film they led, in addition to commanding profit participation at the box office.

These days, A-listers are commanding less, in part because superhero and Star War-esque franchises are drawing droves at box offices, as opposed to the stars themselves. There are some exceptions. Stars like Dwayne Johnson, Vin Diesel and Robert Downey Jr. can still bring in $20 million or more for a big movie, but many are tied to box office performance.

• Some in-demand celebs even make sure any promotional work the sign on for is paid for. The Rock, for example, has some pretty serious stipulations built into his contract, per Variety. For Red Notice, Johnson banked about $22 million, $1 million of which he demanded to promote the film via social.
• Via Variety: “Want access to Johnson’s 104 million Instagram followers? It’s going to cost you. The Rampage star is asking for a $1 million social-media fee as part of his package for the upcoming Red Notice; that includes promoting the film on the likes of Twitter and Facebook.”
• Other artists, like Leonardo DiCaprio, choose to juggle their big paydays ($20 million for Inception) with artier options (half that for Quentin Tarantino‘s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood).