In the race to the top of the Hollywood heap, money and power go hand in hand. Anyone hoping to win, place, or show relies on both to get them across the finish line. Based on various reports, here’s a sampling of Tinseltown’s payday prize-winners and pacesetters.
$20 MILLION AND ABOVE
KELSEY GRAMMER $38 million-plus per year for Frasier (more than $1.6 million per episode; 24-episode season; through 2003- 04)
MIKE MYERS $25 million against 21 percent of the gross for cowriting, producing, and starring in Austin Powers in Goldmember
BRUCE WILLIS $22.5 million for Hart’s War
MICHAEL CRICHTON $40 million two-book deal with HarperCollins
NICOLAS CAGE $20 million for Windtalkers
TOMMY LEE JONES $20 million for Men in Black II
WHITNEY HOUSTON More than $100 million for a new multialbum deal with Arista
MARIAH CAREY More than $100 million for a four-album deal with Virgin
MARTIN LAWRENCE $20 million for National Security; $20 million for a Blue Streak sequel
LEONARDO DICAPRIO $20 million for Gangs of New York
$15-19 MILLION
RAY ROMANO $19 mil-plus per year for Everybody Loves Raymond
BRAD PITT Around $18 million for Spy Game
DAVID CHASE More than $15 million to exec-produce a fifth season of The Sopranos
RICHARD GERE $15 million for Unfaithful; $15 million for The Mothman Prophecies
RUSSELL CROWE $15 million for A Beautiful Mind
DREW CAREY Up to $19.5 mil per year for The Drew Carey Show ($600,000- $750,000 per episode; 26-episode season; through 2003-04)
$10-14 MILLION
MATT DAMON $10 million for The Bourne Identity, but he (along with others in the cast) took a one-third pay cut for Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s 11
BEN AFFLECK $12.5 million for Gigli, up from $10 million for The Sum of All Fears
VIN DIESEL More than $11 mil for Pitch Black: The Chronicles of Riddick; $10 mil for XXX
JET LI $10 mil-per-film Miramax deal, including a Tibetan-monk action comedy
GWYNETH PALTROW $10 million for View From the Top
BARRY LEVINSON $10 million to direct Bandits
$5-9 MILLION
NOAH WYLE Around $9 million per year for ER, through 2003-04
EDWARD NORTON Around $6.5 million for the early Hannibal Lecter tale Red Dragon
PATRICIA HEATON $6 million-plus per year for Everybody Loves Raymond
THE ROCK $5.5 million for The Scorpion King
REESE WITHERSPOON $4-5 million for Sweet Home Alabama
MARY HART More than $5 million annually to host Entertainment Tonight for five more years
COLIN FARRELL $5 million for The Farm
$1-4 MILLION
BILL O’REILLY An average of more than $4 million annually to host Fox News Channel’s The O’Reilly Factor for six years
ROB LOWE and MARTIN SHEEN Around $2.2 million each per year for The West Wing (around $100,000 per episode; 22-episode season)
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