Random question about actor's pay I have never found an answer to

Washed up guys like Steven Seagal still make about $2 million a movie. You could have literally half the budget going to pay the star since the whole movie is sold around them anyway. I would bet Cage pulls in about $5 million a movie today.

Quick small paydays.

Sometimes they sign a contract to do a certain number of films for a set amount of money, like I’ll do 5 films for $50 million for this studio.

Some guys just like to work. Whether it’s a shitty little no nothing film, a huge blockbuster they play a bit role in, or an artistic turn in a prestige film.

They don't talk about the business side of the industry much, but I'm always interested in this too.

Recently saw an interview with Kevin Pollack and they were asking him about A Few Good Men. He said Jack Nicholson signed on for a discounted fixed rate but he only gave them five days of shooting or something like that and anything extra was some outrageous per diem like $1 million. They finished the filming shots in time but they still needed an extra day for voice dubs and offscreen lines. They couldn't afford to keep Jack on set, so they had Kevin, who apparently did a spot on Nicholson impression, say the lines.