Keanu Reeves and Will Smith among stars who can command high salaries and percentages

In 1914, silent-screen star Mary Pickford became Hollywood's highest-paid actress, making $1000 a week. And in 1916, she signed a contract which guaranteed her an income of at least $1,040,000 over two years. She would make six films in that time and receive 50 per cent of the profits.

Pickford also became a producer and in 1919, she teamed up with stars Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and director D.W. Griffith to form the independent distribution company United Artists.

Marlon Brando for Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) and Elizabeth Taylor for Cleopatra (1963) each received an unprecedented $1 million salary.

Brando also received $3.7 million and a percentage of the box office gross to play Jor-El in Superman (1978) - not bad for 13 days of work and less than 20 minutes of screen time. He sued the producers claiming he had not been paid all he was owed and settled for $15 million.

When Jack Nicholson played the Joker in Batman (1989) he took $6 million instead of his usual $10 million salary in exchange for a percentage of the film's earnings including merchandise.

This shrewd move made him $50 million.

And other actors like Tom Hanks, Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise and Robert Downey Jr were able to make even more lucrative deals. Most were for franchise movies though Hanks did well with two stand-alones, Forrest Gump and Saving Private Ryan. Will Smith made $100 million from the third Men in Black movie (2012).

For the first Matrix movie, Keanu Reeves received $10 million plus 10 per cent of the gross and $15 million plus 15 per cent for the second and third, so he made about $250 million in total from the three.

While it is often said with franchises "the movie is the star", having actors proven in their roles is a desirable part of the package - even at a cost.