11 Movie Actors Who Were Paid The Biggest Salary Per Words

5. Johnny Depp - $66,606 Per Word For Alice In Wonderland

Jack Nicholson Joker Payday
Walt Disney Pictures

Johnny Depp is no stranger to a big payday, and his stint on Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland movie in 2010 proved to be a hugely profitable one for the actor.

With 661 words of dialogue throughout this telling of the classic tale, Depp earned himself a sweet $66,606 per word for what was believed to be total earnings in the region of $44 million.

In terms of pay-per-word, Johnny also had two other movies that just missed out on this list. Compared to the #10 entry of this article - Tom Cruise's $20,194 for each word of Mission: Impossible II - Depp was paid $19,209 per word for The Tourist, and $14,889 for every word of his stunning performance as the headline act of Burton's Edward Scissorhands.

None of the aforementioned pictures are the movies for which Johnny Depp was paid the most, but they were his most profitable in terms of words-to-cash. But when looking at his total Edward Scissorhands payday of $3 million, that figure's absolutely blown out of the water by the reported $90 million a piece Depp has made for the five Pirates of the Caribbean movies to date.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.