Movie Actors Who Were Paid The Biggest Salary Per Words

Having played Elvis in John Carpenter’s biopic of the King, the eyepatch-adorned badass Snake Plissken in Escape from New York, the bearded and similarly badass MacReady in The Thing, loud ‘n’ brash Jack Burton in Big Trouble in Little China and Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, hope was high when Russell was announced to be headlining Paul W.S. Anderson’s sci-fi actioner Soldier in 1998. Unfortunately, just two years after the disappointing Escape from LA, Soldier proved to be an absolute dud. While the film itself was a total turd, the jacked Russell still pocketed a nice $20 million payday for Soldier. That fee breaks down as a staggering $144,231 for each of the 104 words spoken by Kurt’s tough-as-nails Sergeant Todd ‘3465’. To put into perspective just how hard Soldier bombed, not only did critics slam the film, but the movie didn’t get anywhere close to breaking even at the box office, let alone making a profit. From a budget in the region of $60 million – including Russell’s $20 million pay – the picture stumbled to a $14.6 million take-home.

April 6, 2022 | 7:16 pm