3. Will Smith - Men In Black 3 (2012)
The man formerly known as the 'King of Summer' was on an unprecedented box-office winning streak at the turn of the century, seeing 8 movies in a row between 2002's Men in Black II and 2008's Hancock open at number 1 and sail past $100 million domestically. The disappointing Seven Pounds was Will Smith's last cinema release for 4 years before he returned safely in his wheelhouse with the long-in-development Men in Black 3, which also turned out to be the biggest earner of his entire career. The movie was beset by problems during production. Initially written by Etan Cohen back in 2009, the script was then rewritten by David Koepp less than six months before the start of principal photography in November 2010. Even more worrying was the news that by the time production began the script still wasn't finished, which required that filming shut down between Christmas 2010 and April 2011 as the time-travel aspects of the story were worked out. This caused the budget to balloon to $215 million, with rumours swirling that marketing and distribution fees would see the movie ultimately cost upwards of $375 million. However, people should no better than to doubt a Will Smith summer blockbuster. Despite plot holes you could drive a truck through and Smith's shtick beginning to grow tiring (Josh Brolin was the best thing in it, in my opinion), Men In Black 3 was a massive hit and grossed almost $625 million worldwide. On top of his regular $20 million salary, the actor also pocketed a percentage of the theatrical and home video gross to increase his earnings from the movie to an estimated $100 million.