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.
The “A-list actor” isn’t much of a thing nowadays - it’s all much more about franchises - but star power used to be a real box office draw. People would go to see a film just because it was the new Johnny Depp film, for instance, regardless of the genre/plot/style/quality.
There aren’t many actors these days who have that kind of draw. Two that I can think of are Ryan Reynolds and Tom Cruise - both actors where you have a fairly good idea of what you’ll get from a film they’re in, even when you know nothing about it.
Franchises have definitely taken over. People will go to the cinema to see a film because it’s a Marvel film, a Star Wars film, etc, regardless of who directed it, who it stars, and the quality of the film. Sequels and cinematic universes sell tickets in the way familiar faces used to.
Definitely hasn’t gone away though, same concept for directors. Oppenheimer basically sold it’s tickets when it was announced just because it was Nolan, same thing for Tarrentino films
The “A-list actor” isn’t much of a thing nowadays - it’s all much more about franchises - but star power used to be a real box office draw. People would go to see a film just because it was the new Johnny Depp film, for instance, regardless of the genre/plot/style/quality.
There aren’t many actors these days who have that kind of draw. Two that I can think of are Ryan Reynolds and Tom Cruise - both actors where you have a fairly good idea of what you’ll get from a film they’re in, even when you know nothing about it.
Franchises have definitely taken over. People will go to the cinema to see a film because it’s a Marvel film, a Star Wars film, etc, regardless of who directed it, who it stars, and the quality of the film. Sequels and cinematic universes sell tickets in the way familiar faces used to.
Definitely hasn’t gone away though, same concept for directors. Oppenheimer basically sold it’s tickets when it was announced just because it was Nolan, same thing for Tarrentino films