Jim Carrey was paid $7 million for the original Dumb and Dumber, while his co-star Jeff Daniels — who shared top billing! — made just $50,000. Carrey wasn’t a big star when Dumb and Dumber went into production in 1994 and the comedy’s total budget was just $16 million — so how did he walk away with so much? “They offered him $350,000 to do the movie and he passed,” explains Peter Farrelly.
While I don’t think it’s as straight forward calculation as Norgur thinks, you’re forgetting that star power has marketing reach beyond just name recognition on a poster. People want to hear from them. They give interviews, promote at events and give status to the movie: It will be featured more in media which in itself means that more people will hear about it (even if they don’t choose the movie based on that name) which means they’re more likely to consider seeing it at a later date as they recognize it.
While I don’t think it’s as straight forward calculation as Norgur thinks, you’re forgetting that star power has marketing reach beyond just name recognition on a poster. People want to hear from them. They give interviews, promote at events and give status to the movie: It will be featured more in media which in itself means that more people will hear about it (even if they don’t choose the movie based on that name) which means they’re more likely to consider seeing it at a later date as they recognize it.