How Much Do They Earn

Beside for being known world-widely, the actors or better say the movie stars enjoy not only the fame, but also great amounts of money as they are very well paid for most of their roles. This is the case especially if they are making trilogies. So, I guess you've all asked yourselves, at least for once, how much do they earn? Undoubtedly, I can say they earn so much that most of us have never seen that money in our entire life. Of course, the directors and producers are those who take the biggest piece of the cake, but we'll talk about them in some of the following posts. For now, let's just focus on the actors, like Kristen Stewart, Elijah Wood, Matt Damon, Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy and Leonardo di Caprio.

1. Kristen Stewart

You know her as Bella Swan in the Twilight Saga trilogy (2008-2012). Besides that, her most representative role was in The Snow White and the Huntsman (2012). Though lots of people think (and I can't agree more) that her acting in the most cases is poor and it is speculated that she made it to the big screen just because both her parents are working in the filming industry, she made herself quite a salary. As for her role in theTwilight Saga she earned $2 000 000 for the first movie, $12 000 000 + 7.5% of the gross for the second one (Breaking Dawn Part 1) and  $12 500 000 + 7.5% of the gross for the third and the last one (Breaking Dawn Part 2). And to be honest, during all of the movies, she smiled about 5 times... As if Steven Seagal is her father. And for, according to many, a better movie - Snow White and the Huntsman she earned $34 000 000!!! Even if she stopped with here career now, she wouldn't have to do anything else in her life and she'd be able to live in full commodity.

2. Elijah Wood - best known as Frodo Baggins

Though the expectations of the amount of his salary, having The Lord of the Rings trilogy in mind, would be very high, this actor wasn't that much paid, at least in the beginning. Beside acting since his early childhood, in movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Sin City his earnings improved with Lord of the Rings, you could say the role of his life. But, unlike Kristen Stewart who made a treasure out of 4 movies, this guy made "only" $2 000 000 for the Fellowship of the Ring, $5 000 000 for Two Towers and $10 000 000 for theReturn of the King. It is told that he got some bonus after all and that now he is worth about $18 000 000 but nevertheless, it's a pity Elijah earned less the Kristen for enormously better movies than Twilight Saga.

 

3. Matt Damon

This naturally talented actor, best know for the roles in Ocean's Eleven, Talented Mr Ripley and Bourne trilogy, also earned a lot. Some of his most-paid movies are Talented Mr Ripley - $5 000 000, Ocean's Eleven- also $5 000 000, All the Pretty Horses - $5 500 000, The Legend of Bagger Vance - $7 000 000, Bourne Identity - $10 000 000, The Brothers Grimm - $10 000 000 as well, Bourne Ultimatum - $20 000 000. This is what is known about his salary, but there are also movies like We Bought a Zoo and other "Ocean's" he also get really good paid for.

 

4. Nicole Kidman

This actress made quite a fortune I can tell. According to imdb her payments were almost never under the amount of one million dollars. She showed her extreme talent in many movies, and in my opinion she is one of the actresses who deserved to be paid much. Her most paid movies are Bewitched and The Interpreter for which she earned about $17 000 000 each. After that - the movies that brought her about $15 000 000 each are Birth, Cold Mountain and The Stepford Wives. For the movies like Moulin Rouge, The Others and The Hours she mad $7 000 000 each. For one of the best movies with her ex-husband, Tom Cruise, With Eyes Wide Shut she made $6 500 000. Summarizing the amount of money for all other movies she acted in, along with these mentioned here, her wealth (just from movies) is about $259 750 000.

 

5. Tom Cruise

The ex-husband of the previously mentioned actress Nicole Kidman, could be among the richest actors in the world. He is known for movies like Minority Report, The Firm, Vanilla Sky, Jerry Meguire, Top Gun, The Interview with a Vampire and especially for The Mission Impossible movies. So we can assume he made money lots of people can't even imagine, so to support that claim here are some known facts - for the Minority report he was paid $25 000 000, Vanilla Sky brought him $20 000 000 + 30% of profit, as well as Eyes Wide Shut and Jerry Meguire. His best paid movie is Mission Impossible II for what he earned even $75 000 000 and Mission Impossible I - $70 000 000!!! He could just make those two movies and quit his career and spend the rest of his life enjoining wherever and with whomever he wanted. Interview with the Vampirebrought him $15 000 000 and for Top Gun he made "just" $2 000 000. Quite a career and quite a salary, you must say.

 

6. Leonardo di Caprio

Lets skip Cameron Diaz, who now has about $90 000 000 and Eddie Murphy who earned $118 000 000 just from acting career, and talk about Leo di Caprio's salary. This magnificent actor, recognized as very talented since his first appearing in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (along with also young and magnificent Johnny Depp) where he performed a mentally ill younger brother, made quite a career in movies like Titanic, Catch Me If You Can, Inception... Well, let's start from the movie that brought him less money is Basketball Diaries from 1995, that brought him a million dollars. After that, there was Titanic - $2 500 000 and J. Edgar - $2 000 000, and that's it about less than $10 000 000 movies. Now let's talk some real money - The Gangs of York brought him $10 000 000 + a certain percentage of the money this movie made world-wide. Then there are Catch Me If You Can, The Beach and Aviator that brought him $20 000 000 each, as well as The Departed and Blood Diamond. His best movie according to many - Inception brought him fantastic $59 000 000!!! And not to mention Shutter Island... Excellent actor deserves excellent salary, isn't it?

 

Well I don't know about you, but I'm getting a little dizzy from all these big numbers, so I'll just stop for now. It gets a little depressing when you realize that lots of people around the world are either starving, or hardly making a month out of their salary, while some other people, thanks to their talent and some strings and connections and of course a lot of luck, are making these enormous amounts of money.