It’s fair to say that Keanu Reeves became a household name because of the Matrix.
I’ll pre-empt this answer by saying that it’s difficult to receive definitive answers as to how much he earned.
Sure, he was in many other movies, such as Bill & Ted(s), Speed, The Devil’s Advocate, & more, but the Matrix is arguably his peak at this time.
It also goes on to show how much of a business genius he was.
At this time - he was a bankable star. This meant that he received a whopping $10m to appear in the first movie.
He didn’t stick with just $10m though; he was able to go back and renegotiate his contract - giving him a 10% cut of the box office profits that the Matrix may have made.
This, of course, turned out to be an incredibly smart move, because the first movie turned out to be a box office smash - earning $463m worldwide, netting Reeves a staggering $25m on top of his $10m that he had already received.
With the sequels already planned and the first movie already a huge success, Reeves was able to once again renegotiate his contract.
This time he increased his cut from 10% to 15%.
The 2nd and 3rd movies were shot back-to-back, so that they could be released within 6 months of each other. This also meant that he was paid a single wage to do both movies & that his cut would be 15% of the income from both sequels.
The sequels earned $741m and $427m respectively, which means that when all is said and done, Reeves would go on to earn a total of $250m from this franchise.
Keanu Reeves incredible business sense has meant that he is still the highest paid film actor with a whopping $150m for the 2nd & 3rd movies alone.
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