# Highest salary for an actor who was acting in a movie for the very first time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [August 17, 2021, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-salary-for-an-actor-who-was-acting-in-a-movie-for-the-very-first-time/949036 "2021-08-17T20:24:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2021, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-salary-for-an-actor-who-was-acting-in-a-movie-for-the-very-first-time/949036/21 "2021-08-18T01:58:49Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Chaplin was first hired by a film company on a $150 a week contract. His first film started production in “late January,” and was released February 2nd, 1915. So, at most he got two weeks pay for that film - $300. Which, according to a random inflation calculator I found online, works out to about 8,000 in 2021 dollars. Yeah, probably still too early, paid under the studio system. I was trying to think of someone who could be big enough to command a major salary, but never have been in any movie. The early movie stars do, at least, have the latter going for them more than anyone else, but the studio system makes it all different. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2021, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-salary-for-an-actor-who-was-acting-in-a-movie-for-the-very-first-time/949036/22 "2021-08-18T03:08:23Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > It helps that it was only twelve and half minutes long. A good solid single reel picture (longer films were often mounted as 10 minute reels: the technology went to perhaps 15 minutes if pushed??). I wonder if it was filmed as a single reel? When he was doing his own production, CC did editing ‘in the camera’: he wasn’t saving costs, so he kept shooting until he had what he wanted, but if you were doing it on the cheap… ---
**Author:** ![borschevsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@borschevsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/borschevsky)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2021, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-salary-for-an-actor-who-was-acting-in-a-movie-for-the-very-first-time/949036/23 "2021-08-18T03:41:54Z")
Maybe there’s a TV star who had a breakout hit before ever appearing in a movie. Jerry Seinfeld would be a good example - I think the Bee Movie was his first big movie part, and it happened well after his show was popular. Although IMDB lists a couple small movie parts for him prior to Bee Movie. Millie Bobby Brown apparently got a million for Godzilla, which was her first feature film. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2021, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-salary-for-an-actor-who-was-acting-in-a-movie-for-the-very-first-time/949036/24 "2021-08-18T05:17:47Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > What about someone who wasn’t famous - what’s the highest they were ever paid first time? Once you exclude those who were already famous in other fields (e.g. Michael Jordan, Dwayne Johnson), I think the next category down is probably children of entertainment icons. They have parents who know how to navigate the industry and whom producers may be trying to cozy up to by throwing their kid an expensive bone. While I couldn’t find info for his first film (_The Pursuit of Happyness_), Jaden Smith reportedly earned at least $3M for his third film, _The Karate Kid_. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2021, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-salary-for-an-actor-who-was-acting-in-a-movie-for-the-very-first-time/949036/25 "2021-08-18T05:44:55Z")
Another category should be stars - often writer/director/stars - of b-movies or indie films that became unexpected hits. People like Melvin Van Peebles in _Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song_. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2021, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-salary-for-an-actor-who-was-acting-in-a-movie-for-the-very-first-time/949036/26 "2021-08-18T11:16:06Z")
I was thinking someone like Sydney Greenstreet, who was a stage actor when he was hired to play Kasper Gutman in _The Maltese Falcon_. It was his first movie at the age of 61. I couldn’t find his salary for that one, but for _Casablanca_ the next year he was paid $3,750 per week for seven weeks, which would be worth around $440,000 today, not bad, but no record. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2021, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-salary-for-an-actor-who-was-acting-in-a-movie-for-the-very-first-time/949036/27 "2021-08-18T16:56:37Z")
I don’t think you’re going to find anybody approaching a record until recent times (even adjusting for inflation). The old studios weren’t going to pay the kind of salaries you see nowadays. It was considered newsworthy when Marlon Brando received a million dollar salary for appearing in _Mutiny on the Bounty_ in 1962. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2021, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-salary-for-an-actor-who-was-acting-in-a-movie-for-the-very-first-time/949036/28 "2021-08-18T17:10:19Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > Although, as a data point, Daisy Ridley got somewhere between $100,000 and $300,000 for _The Force Awakens_ (her second film), the same ballpark as Reeve almost 40 years earlier. Of course, if Ridley’s deal included a back end percentage, she made a lot more than that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-salary-for-an-actor-who-was-acting-in-a-movie-for-the-very-first-time/949036.md?page=1)