10. Marlon Brando: Jor-El in Superman (1978)
Million dollar Brando! Famously, he was paid $3.7 million (plus a percentage of the films profits) for playing Supermans daddy, clocking up a whopping minutes of screentime. And reportedly he was quite open about only doing it for the money and not making a huge effort to learn his lines. So thats not a bad pro-rata salary. Christopher Reeve was an unknown actor at the time, and consequently his billing is lower than that of Brando and co-star Gene Hackman. Was it a waste of cash? Casting Brando was the producers (Alexander and Ilya Salkind) stake in the ground. It was their way of saying that this is going to be a serious movie, despite the fact that its based on a comic book about a man dressed in tights. It was about perception, like a salesman turning up in the biggest car and the flashiest suit. "This is a big movie, and were paying Brando millions of dollars to star in it." The opening scenes on Krypton are big, bold, and striking, just like Brando the actor. It establishes a serious tone that helps carry the movie when certain later scenes do descend into slapstick, or become a little cringeworthy.