Hollywood’s biggest salaries in 2016, from actors to caterers

You don’t have to be a movie star to earn a decent living in Tinseltown.

A new study at The Hollywood Reporter reveals that the paydays of major actors, directors and producers have gone down, whilst the earnings of those in lower-rung film industry jobs have risen.

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As was reported not long ago, Jennifer Lawrence is the highest paid actress in Hollywood this year, thanks mainly to the $20 million (approx £15.4 million) she commanded for her role in the upcoming ‘Passengers.’

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, meanwhile, is the year’s highest paid actor, yet his wage for ‘Jumanji’ is a comparatively modest $19 million (£14.64 million).

As the report stresses, the days of big name stars routinely earning between $20-30 million upfront are largely behind us now, with actors instead taking smaller upfront fees with ownership stakes in the film: Keanu Reeves and Vin Diesel are said to have made such deals on the upcoming ‘John Wick’ and ‘XXX’ sequels.

Director deals have also shrunk, with average upfront salaries said to be in the range of $750,000 to $1.5 million. Huge pay packages can still occur though, with Christopher Nolan said to be getting $20 million upfront plus 20% of the gross profits on ‘Dunkirk.’

Producer salaries, meanwhile, are said to be between $1-2.5 million upfront, but back-end deals can bump that up a lot: ‘Deadpool’ producer Simon Kinberg had an initial fee of $2 million, but then earned a further $38 million when the film made $782 million worldwide.

Kinberg also does well as a writer, having earned a combined $8 million for his two ‘X-Men’ scripts, and $350,000 per week as a jobbing script doctor.

Low-level studio executive salaries are in the range of $250,000 to $850,000, with studio chiefs generally making around $5 million – and unsurprisingly CEOs earn the most, between $36.2 million and $56.8 million. Agents do handsomely too, the most successful earning $10 million.

What may be surprising is how well paid some less coveted Hollywood roles prove to be, with caterers potentially earning an annual $65,000 (approx £50,000), make-up artists earning a possible $79,500 (£61,000), and boom mic operators getting around $80,000 (£61,640).

Read the report in full here.

Picture Credit: WENN