It might seem as though in order to be named the highest paid movie actor of the last decade,
one would have had to star in a good number of huge Hollywood hits.
But with only a handful of roles over the last ten years, it comes as something of a
surprise that Will Smith has been crowned the king of Hollywood paychecks.
The actor didn't totally dominate pop culture in the 2010s like he had in the 1990s with
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and the Bad Boys franchise, or in the 2000s with high-profile
appearances in everything from romantic comedies to post-apocalyptic actioners to Oscar-nominated dramas.
Instead, the 2010s saw Smith taking quite a few dramatic roles, in films like Focus,
Concussion, Collateral Beauty, and Gemini Man.
He also turned out appearances in two critical failures: as Floyd Lawton, a.k.a. Deadshot,
in the much-maligned Suicide Squad, and as Daryl Ward in Bright, another David Ayer-directed venture.
Smith's final film role of the 2010s was different from all the aforementioned others: he voiced
Lance Sterling, "the world's most awesome spy," in the 20th Century Fox animated flick
Spies in Disguise opposite Spider-Man star Tom Holland.
Though Smith hasn't exactly had a stellar critical record for this decade of film releases,
there has been one shining star: Men in Black 3.
It's been a long while now, but Men in Black 3 was released in this decade, in 2012, to
be exact, and it earned Smith an incredible $100 million paycheck.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Smith walked away with that stack of cash from the
film's box office take-home.
In 2019 cash, $100 million is nearly $112 million, further solidifying Smith as the
top-earner of the decade.
For Men in Black 3, Smith reprised his role as Agent J one last time for an up-front salary
of $20 million, but secured in his contract a whopping 10 percent of gross income from
the film, which is where the extra $80 million came from.
Usually, after-release supplementary compensation for an actor is calculated by net profit once
studio bills and marketing expenses are paid, so a deal like Smith's is extraordinary.
Franchise star power is what keeps sequels alive, and many studios have grown eager to
shell out money to retain actors, or, in Smith's case, bring them back an entire decade after
the previous iteration.
The Men in Black 3 production rolled out the metaphorical red carpet for Smith all throughout
shooting as well, and was even ignobly memorialized in New York Post spreads complaining about
the luxurious trailer Smith brought along for on-location shoots.
"Where'd you get the car?"
"And the suit?"
"I stole them both.
Car from your wife, suit from your grandmother."
Bringing back the namesake Men in Black was an extremely expensive venture, but in the
end it paid off: Men in Black 3 grossed the most money of the franchise's history, including
the most recent and poorly-performing foray, Men in Black: International.
It's unlikely Smith will ever return to the MIB franchise, and truthfully, after a payday
like the one he received for Men in Black 3, he doesn't really need to.
Knowing that Smith's 2010s haul came from a blockbuster franchise isn't surprising.
What is surprising is that the franchise was anything other than the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Iron Man's 2008 release dawned our new blockbuster movie-going era, and the 2010s saw it become
a franchise-perpetuating machine.
Profits had never been greater for the tentpole release than they were in the 2010s, and that's
been nothing but good for film studios and the actors who negotiate themselves into long-term contracts.
It's the kind of money that will not only set them for life, but also pay their great-grandchildren's
college tuitions.
Robert Downey Jr. has been without a doubt Marvel's reigning star.
But still, the Iron Man lead couldn't take the title of the top-earning actor of the
2010s, even with $75 million for Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame each.
RDJ actually did come in second place for single-film income, behind Smith.
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