10 Insane Acting Salaries For Upcoming Movies
Will Smith's salary could fund an entire movie...
With Hollywood movies become more popular every year, and production budgets ever increasing, it's to be expected that every now and then we'll see some actors rake in millions just for one performance.
It's not uncommon for actors' salaries to be revealed, and we've seen some ridiculous figures in recent years. For example, Robert Downey Jr.'s paycheck from Avengers: Infinity War was reportedly over $75 million. While this is huge and extremely rare, there are many other cases where actors and actresses have been paid ludicrous amounts for roles.
The reason studios are comfortable paying this much is because the more expensive actors tend to have such big fan followings that it acts as good promotion just to include them. A film starring Tom Cruise will inevitably attract more attention than the same movie starring an unknown actor, and in turn make the studio more money than they paid for the actor.
And that's precisely why some upcoming films are paying astronomical amounts to their stars...
10. Will Smith - $35 Million - Bright 2
Will Smith is a huge name in Hollywood, and nobody is doubting that. It does raise eyebrows though when it gets leaked that Smith could be earning up to $35 million for reprising his role as Daryl Ward in Bright 2.
2017's Bright was no masterpiece and was met to critical panning upon release, so it's a little surprising that not only is there a sequel on the way, but that so much money is being poured into it. Smith reportedly earned $20 million for Bright, which had a $90 million production budget. With such an increase in pay towards Smith, Netflix must have faith that Bright 2 will be a big improvement.
It's pretty clear to see that the main reason Will Smith is even in Bright 2 is to act as a marketing ploy. By saying Will Smith has a new movie coming out, and marketing it as 'Will Smith's Bright 2', it's destined to get a lot more attention than if it had less famous actors in the main roles. This doesn't excuse the first movie's poor quality, but seeing Smith return again, and presumably a much higher budget, Bright 2 could actually be good.
Even if the reports of Smith earning $35 million for Bright 2 are false, he's still in for a fantastic year financially. The long-awaited Bad Boys For Life is expected to net Will Smith a hefty $17 million.