Movie Actors Who Were Paid The Biggest Salary Per Words

Earlier this year saw Liam Neeson talk up how he’d love to return as Zeus for a third Titans movie, and a quick glance at his pay-per-word rate for 2010’s Clash of the Titans will show you why. That film and its 2012 Wrath follow-up were both panned by critics and fans alike, yet Neeson was paid $5 million and $7 million, respectively, for Clash of the Titans and Wrath of the Titans. In terms of how much that equates to for each word, it’s Clash that proved particularly favourable for the Northern Irish actor. Speaking just 142 words in Clash of the Titans, that breaks down as a steady $35,211 for each word uttered by Neeson’s Zeus in Louis Leterrier’s 2010 offering. Both Clash and Wrath actually turned a solid, if not spectacular profit at the box office, although any third Titans outing would surely have to be massively scaled back. Given the current landscape of cinema, it seems unlikely that Warner Bros. would be willing to splash out anywhere even close to the $125 million (Clash) or $150 million (Wrath) it cost to make the existing two entries in this franchise.

April 6, 2022 | 7:16 pm