Movie star salaries are shrinking — unless you're Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, that is.
A Variety report into the salaries commanded by some of Hollywood's biggest stars found that many are taking home humbler pay cheques compared to the glory days of the '90s and early noughties, when household names like Julia Roberts and Jim Carrey could demand salaries of more than $US20 million per film.
In contrast, A-lister Leonardo DiCaprio was asked to halve his usual $US20 million ($NZ28.7 million) pay cheque to star in Quentin Tarantino's upcoming Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. And increasingly, stars are being asked to "bet on themselves" — taking a small percentage of a film's back end profits instead of a large upfront pay cheque.
But as Hollywood belts tighten, there's one certified crowd pleaser who remains unaffected. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is such box-office gold, he has a million-dollar clause written into one of his latest contracts that will make your eyes water.
The affable star — who has more than 100 million Instagram followers, 58 million Facebook fans and another 12.9 million Twitter followers — will receive $US22 million ($NZ31.5 million) for his work in the upcoming thriller Red Notice, to be released next year. A cool $US1 million ($NZ1.4 million) of that is a "social media fee", payment for Johnson's promotional posts spruiking the film across his social media channels.
