5. Tom Hanks - Forrest Gump (1994)
As well as being one of the most popular and bankable stars in Hollywood, Tom Hanks is also one of the wealthiest. Regularly pocketing a paycheck of $20 million and over, the biggest payday of America's favorite everyman came with Forrest Gump, a movie that everybody loved when it was released but which now seems to become less popular every year. At the time of the movie's release Hanks wasn't one of Hollywood's top earners, but that soon changed. Deferring his salary in return for a share of the movie's gross, the actor was rewarded to the tune of $70 million when Forrest Gump became the biggest hit of 1994 that didn't feature animated lions, taking $677.4 million worldwide. As well as commercial success, the movie was nominated for 13 Academy Awards and won 6, including a second consecutive Best Actor statue for Hanks. This propelled the actor to the very top of the A-list, and he has since scored huge paychecks for the likes of Saving Private Ryan, The Green Mile, Cast Away and the tedious Robert Langdon movies. However, he has not scored a bigger personal windfall than he did for Forrest Gump. Turns out the life of Tom Hanks is like a box of chocolates; very rich and difficult for some people to stomach.