25 years on, Jack Nicholson's incredibly lucrative contract for playing The Joker in Tim Burton's blockbuster still remains one of the biggest paydays in Hollywood history. In fact, Nicholson scored himself such a great deal that he's still making royalties from the movie to this day. The actor's salary for his role was $6m (a million more than Michael Keaton earned for playing the title character), but it was the perks in the contract that bumped his earnings up to a whole other level. Although it is now a common practice in regards to blockbuster film-making, Nicholson's Batman deal was one of the first instances of an actor being paid a percentage of the gross as well as a basic fee, and he was also entitled to a cut of the merchandising and home video sales on top of that. When you consider that the movie earned $411.3m at the box office, $150m on home video and generated around $750m from merchandise, the studio must have been thankful they didn't offer the legendary actor a higher percentage. As it stands, Nicholson is estimated to have earned well over $60m from the movie, which adjusted for inflation is equivalent to over $115m in today's terms.
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