Movie Actors Who Were Paid The Biggest Salary Per Words

It tells you all you need to know about Hollywood when you realise how few females are featured on this list. Despite her male peers making ludicrous amounts of money, Sigourney Weaver’s time on the Alien franchise never brought her anywhere close to the rewards of those male stars. Alien: Resurrection was the Alien picture that served up the biggest payday for Weaver, though, and she was given an $11 million fee and co-producer credit for that film. That fee also breaks down as the actress’ best pay-per-word of this series – lining up at $23,128 once her basic pay and add-ons were tallied up. This is vastly different to the first Alien movie, where Weaver was paid just $35,000 for her franchise-launching, star-making turn as Ellen Ripley. Even after the success of that picture, it was only the campaigning of director James Cameron that managed to get the actress a $1 million payday for Aliens. By the much-maligned Alien 3, Weaver was able to command a $4 million base pay with a share of the movie’s box office, and her stock had again risen by the time of Alien: Resurrection – not least down to how Sigourney was more than happy to see Ripley killed off at the end of the third film. As such, that meant that she had to be enticed back by an improved deal to play Ripley 8 in Resurrection.

April 6, 2022 | 7:16 pm