Movie Actors Who Were Paid The Biggest Salary Per Words

For The Matrix, Reeves made $10 million up front for the picture, with an additional 10% of the film’s overall gross. For the second and third movies in the series, though, the actor had a deal that saw him take home a combined $30 million and then have 15% of the gross from both The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix: Revelations. Combined, Keanu said a total of 638 words across Reloaded and Revelations – which meant that his deal for those sequels paid out $159,393 per word. Where the ‘good dude’ part gets hammered home in this instance, is how Reeves handed over the majority of his percentage points for the second and third films to the FX and costume teams who worked on those movies. Given how those two pictures earned over $1.2 billion globally, Reeves’ gesture ended up gifting approximately $75 million to those teams, which worked out at around $1 million per person for each member of the FX and costume crews. Adding further to the positive vibes, Keanu also bought a Harley Davidson motorcycle for each of the stunt team involved in the two Matrix sequels.

April 6, 2022 | 7:16 pm