Putting Things in Perspective

June 3, 2007 Posted by Tyler Cruz

This post  doesn’t really carry any “lesson to be learned” or anything. Instead, it’s simply a mere observation.

I could have made the example topic in this post on Hollywood stars and TV celebrities. Now, I could have chosen from a wide selection of subjects such as the world’s top-10 richest people as stated by Forbes, rich CEOs, lottery winners, etc. But I’ve chosen movie stars and TV celebrities since they are so well known, and it is also a bit more known what exactly they do for a living.

Before I continue, I’d like to say that I believe in most cases, actors work very hard for their money, and aside from their hard work on (and off) the set, they have to deal with other aspects of the job such as promoting movies, the paparazzi, and all the other downsides of being such a public figure. So I do agree that celebrities, in most cases, deserve a nice chunk of change.

However, it may surprise some people just how much celebrities make…

Let’s begin with Tom Cruise himself. Back in 1983 he was paid $75,000 for the movie “Risky Business”. Since he was not the big movie star he is now, and taking inflation and box office income into effect, this looks normal. Three years later, he did “Top Gun” and was paid $2,000,000. I’ll jump a few movies and years to 1996, when Tom did “Mission Impossible” for a cool $70,000,000. However, this includes a large cut from the box office income as well, but that was what was agreed for having Tom act in the film.

Minority Report (2002) and The Last Samurai (2004) Tom was paid $25,000,000 each film, and that isn’t counting the cut of box office income he got from The Last Samurai either.

I don’t know about you, but I find this amazing. Doing quick math on just the amount Tom received for work on the movies alone (not counting any deals he may have on DVD’s, apperances, and other branding and sponsorship deals) that’s over 3 billion dollars he’s made from acting.

Let’s move on..

Tom Hanks 

You’ve Got Mail, The Green Mile, Cast Away…. $20,000,000 EACH
Saving Private Ryan – $40,000,000+ (box office cut)
Forrest Gump – $70,000,000 (box office cut)

Jerry Seinfeld

Was reportedly receiving $1,000,000 per episode near the final seasons
Got a cool quarter billion ($225,000,000) for sale of syndication rights

Bruce Willis

Unbreakable, The Kid, Hart’s War – $20,000,000, $20,000,000, $22,500,000…
The Sixth Sense – $100,000,000 (box office cut)

Sylvester Stallone

He started with “The Party at Kitty’s and Stud’s” in 1970 for $200 which was a porno, then went on to film Rocky in ’76 for only $23,000 (peanuts even at that time). But he went on an amazing run from 1982 to 2002 to rake in a total of $320,000,000+. How? Well averaging $15,000,00-20,000,000 per movie and filming around one movie per year, it adds up.
Obviously I could go on forever… or until I run out of celebrities to list, but I think you guys get the idea…

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Posted: June 3rd, 2007 under Articles  

20 Responses to “Putting Things in Perspective”

  1. Dan says:

    What exactly is the purpose to this post Tyler. Its like “duh” and kinda lacks a purpose.

  2. mike says:

    How does this tie into affiliate marketing?

  3. I am not really surprised by these amounts. It can be expensive generating buzz for a new movie. A movie’s marketing can make or break it at the box office. Hiring one of these “spotlight” actors will guarantee that all the entertainment news will be mentioning the movie. Its not just the actors who are earning this money through their work. They are in such high demand because they assist in the promotion of the movie.

  4. wesley says:

    Another useless post, are you really trying to up your RSS feed count?..

  5. Dave says:

    Who cares if you think it’s useless. It’s his blog, and he said upfront that this was going to be more of an observation. I don’t understand all of the negative comments every time he makes a new post.

    Seinfeld was making crazy money from that show, because he basically had five different roles in the show (producer, writer, etc.) and was being paid for all of his roles.

    It’s amazing how valuable of a commodity Tom Cruise used to be, compared to where he is now. He is one of the greatest fall-offs of all time.

  6. […] Putting Things in Perspective Since he was not the big movie star he is now, and taking inflation and box office income into effect, this looks normal. Three years later, he did ?Top Gun? and was paid $2000000. I?ll jump a few movies and years to 1996, … […]

  7. Dimitri K says:

    Relevance….. ???

  8. dingle says:

    How did you get that figure for Tom Cruise… 3 billion? Your math seems almost as bad as your spelling.

  9. aoJon says:

    ugh…this post is 100% certified lame…yet is only 10% as lame as charging for the name of a design company…

    Wickedf forums

    • fwicked says:

      are you kidding me jon, the man who posted a bunch of blablbablablablablabla and called it “a post” is critizicing someone else’s writing?

      The guy whose forum shows thread after thread with empty promises is pointing fingers?

      why don’t you finish one of the projects you’ve promised YOUR members before you start critizicing the efforts of others?

      • paul says:

        You’re kidding right?

        I’ve gone through a good % of the posts here and I’ve found less good information here than I would in a days worth of posts at WF.

        Anyway the real reason I wanted to comment was because this post has jack sh*t to do with anything online.

        I’m looking forward to reading your next post on why Burger King is better than McDonalds.

    • Ola says:

      You forgot to mention the Die Hard series for Bruce Willis.

  10. Sunfrog says:

    He said it’s just a mere observation and there’s nothing to be learned at the beginning. And he said it didn’t have to be about celebrities.

    If you want to find a lesson in it maybe it’s to keep at stuff. Forbes people probably started out poor and now they’re rich. same as celebrities.

    Also, once you make it big, try not to go nuts like Tom Cruise. lol

  11. micsaund says:

    Sometimes a trivia type post like this is fun and adds a little perk to the day. I don’t mind it, as long as the main focus remains on the internet business stuff. 🙂

  12. mike says:

    I dont think that is the real aojon from wickedfire.

  13. Tom LeDree says:

    I thought the post was interesting. It’s amazing how much those movie stars earn. They are all good at their jobs though 😀 So credit to them.

  14. If only i was 10 years younger…

  15. ToddW says:

    Let’s keep in mind those #’s are what the actors as a BUSINESS earned. They had to pay $ to their “people” which is HUGE cuts on all those numbers.

    None the less impressive income!

PeerFly

Leave a Reply to Tom LeDree