Highest paid movie and TV actors revealed

The highest paid stars in movies and TV have been revealed, and their enormous salaries will stir the green-eyed monster in you.

If there’s one group of people not feeling the pinch of the rising cost of living, it’s movie stars.

Hollywood’s brightest are commanding enormous, eye-popping pay cheques to flash their pearly veneers at the camera, the kind of money that would make even lottery winners jealous.

Industry bible Variety has released a list of what the top actors have earnt for their recent or upcoming films and, unsurprisingly, Tom Cruise tops the list.

Cruise is estimated to rake in over $US100 million for his work on Top Gun: Maverick, with the vast majority of that money coming from the blockbuster sequel’s huge box office.

Cruise is one of the few talents in the industry who still commands what is called “first-dollar gross”, a lucrative deal which sees him paid a set percentage of the entire box office and not just profits. This means even if a film lost money after production and marketing costs, Cruise would still get paid.

In the case of Top Gun: Maverick – the box office is currently on $US1.24 billion and still going – Cruise will collect big. His deal is said to also include a back-end percentage of digital rentals, DVDs and streaming revenue.

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Tom Cruise has 100 million reasons to be happy. Picture: Paramount Pictures, Skydance and Jerry Bruckheimer Films

He is also slated to take home upfront salaries of between $US12 million to $US14 million for the two upcoming Mission Impossible sequels. He likely has a similar “first-dollar gross” deal for those two films.

Director Christopher Nolan is said to be another figure who commands a “first-dollar gross” deal.

The actor sitting in second position on the top salary charts is Will Smith, who was paid $US35 million for his role in Apple TV+ movie Emancipation, which was greenlit and filmed before he assaulted Chris Rock onstage during the live Oscars broadcast.

Apple seems to be very generous with its stars as it seeks to establish itself as a power player in the industry. It also shelled out $US30 million for Leonardo DiCaprio’s involvement in Killers Of The Flower Moon, a Martin Scorsese crime drama that will also star Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons and Lily Gladstone.

Brad Pitt was, similarly, the beneficiary of Apple’s largesse, taking home a $US30 million pay cheque for his role in an upcoming, still untitled, drama set in the world of Formula 1. Top Gun: Maverick director Joe Kosinski will helm the project while UK F1 driver Lewis Hamilton is one of the producers. Pitt’s production company Plan B is also on-board.

Streaming companies often pay well upfront to compensate for the lack of back-end profits that could have been generated from a cinema release.

Margot Robbie is the highest ranked woman on the list. Picture: Warner Brothers

In the same vein, Chris Hemsworth was paid $US20 million for the sequel to Netflix action flick Extraction, which became the streaming platform’s most watched original movie.

Netflix also paid up to lure Millie Bobby Brown back for the sequel to Enola Holmes. She was paid $US10 million for the next instalment.

The highest ranked woman on the list doesn’t come into play until the equal 16th spot, and it goes to Margot Robbie who is being paid $12.5 million for her role in Barbie. Her co-star Ryan Gosling is being paid the same amount but Robbie may be commanding more separately as she is also a producer on the Greta Gerwig film through her company LuckyChap Entertainment.

Elsewhere, donning a comic book costume continues to be lucrative with Dwayne Johnson being paid $US22.5 million for DC movie Black Adam while Tom Hardy will rake in $US20 million for Venom 3. Jason Momoa’s payday for the next Aquaman flick will be $US15 million while Joaquin Phoenix will command $US20 million for the Joker sequel.

According to Variety, Phoenix made a comparatively paltry $US4.5 million on the first Joker movie but the film then went on to take in over $US1 billion at the box office and also won a swag of awards including an Oscar for Phoenix.

Joaquin Phoenix will earn almost five times as much for the Joker sequel as he did for the original. Picture: Rachel Luna/Getty Images

Top movie salaries

• Tom Cruise, Top Gun: Maverick – $US100 million+

• Will Smith, Emancipation – $US35 million

• Leonardo DiCaprio, Killers Of The Flower Moon – $US30 million

• Brad Pitt, untitled Formula 1 drama – $US30 million

• Dwayne Johnson, Black Adam – $US22.5 million

• Will Ferrell, Spirited – $US20 million

• Ryan Reynolds, Spirited – $US20 million

• Chris Hemsworth, Extraction – $US20 million

• Vin Diesel, Fast X – $US20 million

• Tom Hardy, Venom 3 – $US20 million

• Joaquin Phoenix, Joker 2 – $US20 million

• Denzel Washington, Equaliser 3 – $US20 million

• Jason Momoa, Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom – $US15 million

• Eddie Murphy, Beverly Hills Cop 4 – $US15 million

• Chris Pine, Star Trek sequel – $US13 million

• Steve Carell, Minions: The Rise of Gru – $US12.5 million

• Margot Robbie, Barbie – $US12.5 million

• Ryan Gosling, Barbie – $US12.5 million

• Millie Bobby Brown, Enola Holmes 2 – $US10 million

• Timothee Chalamet, Wonka – $US9 million

Kevin Costner is one of the two highest paid actors in TV. Supplied by Stan.

Over on the TV side, the salaries are lower despite producing more hours of entertainment.

While some top-tier talent can still ask for $US 1 million per episode, there are fewer episodes in TV in the current era, compared to when the stars of Friends were being paid $US1 million per episode for seasons that ran for 24 episodes a year.

Streaming shows typically number between six and 10 episodes per season while broadcast shows have a longer run.

Only two multi-Oscar winners are commanding above $US1 million per episode with Mahershala Ali and Kevin Costner both taking home $US1.3 million per episode for their shows The Pilot and Yellowstone, respectively.

Elsewhere, those being paid $US1 million per episode include Elisabeth Moss for Shining Girls, Michael Keaton for Dopesick, Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren for 1923, Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd for The Shrink Next Door, Jason Sudeikis for Ted Lasso, Sylvester Stallone for Tulsa King, an upcoming series from Taylor Sheridan and Terrence Winter.

TV salaries seem to be better spread between men and women, at least at the upper echelons, with the likes of Rose Byrne, Brie Larson and Anne Hathaway also high on the charts.

Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway both made $US750,000 ($A1 million) per episode for WeCrashed.

Top TV salaries

• Mahershala Ali, The Pilot – $US1.3 million per episode

• Kevin Costner, Yellowstone – $US1.3 million per episode

• Elisabeth Moss, Shining Girls – $US1 million per episode

• Michael Keaton, Dopesick – $US1 million per episode

• Harrison Ford, 1923 – $US1 million per episode

• Helen Mirren, 1923 – $US1 million per episode

• Will Ferrell, The Shrink Next Door – $US1 million per episode

• Paul Rudd, The Shrink Next Door – $US1 million per episode

• Jason Sudeikis, Ted Lasso – $US1 million per episode

• Sylvester Stallone, Tulsa King – $US1 million per episode

• Elizabeth Olsen, Love And Death – $US875,000 per episode

• Brie Larson, Lessons In Chemistry – $US750,000 per episode

• Rose Byrne, Platonic – $US750,000 per episode

• Seth Rogen, Platonic – $US750,000 per episode

• Anne Hathaway, WeCrashed – $US750,000 per episode

• Jared Leto, WeCrashed – $US750,000 per episode

• Pete Davidson, Bupkis – $US500,000 per episode

• Natasha Lyonne, Poker Face – $US500,000 per episode

• Angela Bassett, 9-1-1 – $US450,000 per episode

• David Harbour, Stranger Things – $US450,000 per episode

• Winona Ryder, Stranger Things – $US450,000 per episode

Originally published as Highest paid movie and TV actors revealed