Becoming a movie star is a tough deal.
Even if you are a talented professional actor, you probably have more chances of getting hit by a meteor while walking to your car on a beautiful sunny afternoon than becoming a "star.
" However, for the very very few who make it, the monetary rewards can be "substantial," to say the least.
Here is a Before-After picture of how much some famous stars made in the first movies and where they ended up a few Oscars later.
Julia Roberts $50,000 for Mystic Pizza (1988) $25 Million for Mona Lisa Smile (2003) Tom Cruise $75,000 for Risky Business (1983) $70 Million (includes a percentage of gross) for Mission: Impossible (1996) $75 Million (includes a percentage of gross) for Mission: Impossible II (2000) Denzel Washington $10 Million for Courage Under Fire (1996) $20 Million for The Manchurian Candidate (2004) Halle Berry $600,000 for Monster's Ball (2001) $14 Million for Catwoman (2004) Jack Nicholson $12,500 for On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970) $60 Million for Batman (1989) $10 Million for About Schmidt (2002) Paul Newman $17,000 for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) $1,000,000 + 10% of grossfor The Towering Inferno (1974) Dustin Hoffman $17,000 for The Graduate (1967) $5,800,000 plus a percentage of gross for Rain Man (1988) Elizabeth Taylor $200 a week for There's One Born Every Minute (1942) $1,000,000 plus 10% of the gross for Cleopatra (1963) $1,100,000 plus 10% of the gross for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) Sean Connery $100,000 for Dr.
No (1962) $17 Million for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) -