The 6 most expensive Hollywood roles in history

After his swashbuckling turn as Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Johnny Depp could happily retire from the pirate’s life. The star reportedly earned over $300 million off the hit Disney franchise, including a staggering $90 million salary from Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017). 

Depp reportedly negotiated a percentage of backend profits on several films, Pirates included – likely bolstering his already impressive payday.

Keanu Reeves’ eye-watering salary for his role as Neo in The Matrix franchise may be a hard pill to swallow. The Hollywood star’s total earnings across the first three films reportedly exceed $200 million, including $120 million in bonuses from the second and third movies.

DVD sales from The Matrix reportedly earned the actor some extra cash, as the first film remains one of the best-selling DVDs ever. Keanu also secured an approximate $14 million salary for The Matrix Resurrections (2021) plus back-end payments, so he’s not doing too badly in the streaming era either.

It’s likely Bruce Willis didn’t have a sixth sense that his role as Malcolm Crowe would score him a nine-figure payday. The actor took home a salary of $14 million for the eerie flick, but his staggering payday came from his 17.5% slice of the film’s net profits – thanks to the film’s box office success, he reportedly pocketed an extra $100 million.

While Tom Cruise has earned a pretty impressive sum for his role in the Mission Impossible franchise – including a $100 million paycheck for Mission: Impossible 2 (2000) – it’s his role as suave pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell that has proved the most lucrative. 

As both the star and producer of Top Gun: Maverick (2022), Tom not only scored a $13 million salary but a 10-20 percent cut of the film’s first dollar gross revenue, meaning he got a share of box office revenue before studio costs. The actor likely earned over $200 million thanks to this deal – around 100 times his salary for the original 1986 film. 

With Top Gun 3 rumoured, Tom might have an even pricier payday on the horizon.

Thwarting alien threats paid off for Will Smith. For his role as Agent J in the first three Men in Black trilogy, the actor earned a substantial salary – culminating with $20 million upfront for Men in Black 3 (2012). 

After the success of the first film, Will negotiated a 10% cut of the gross for the following instalments, pocketing an additional $80 million worth in backend points for the third film – resulting in an estimated $169.1 million in total. It’s pretty understandable why Agent J hung up his suit and tie ahead of the fourth flick now.

The Marvel franchise made its superhero cast millions, but it’s Iron Man who struck the most lucrative deal. Robert Downey Jr. reportedly made $50 million from the first Avengers film in 2012 – a salary over 15 times bigger than his co-stars – and the powerful paydays didn’t stop there.

With a total paycheck of $75 million for both Infinity War (2018) and Endgame (2019), the actor is believed to have earned over $380 million in total for his nine films as Iron Man. Robert will make his MCU return in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday (2026) as Doctor Doom, so we’ll likely see this number bumped up shortly.