At the age of 58, Jim Carrey is still one of the highest-earning actors in Hollywood, commanding up to $25 million per motion picture — and that’s not including any backend payments he could receive if the film performs well at the box office.
Carrey, who landed his big break in 1994's The Mask, has been making a substantial amount of money for his work, including his role as Grinch in 2000’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas. For the part, the funnyman took home an estimated $20 million, and with the film going on to make over $300 million worldwide, it would seem as if the studio had definitely gotten their money’s worth.
How Much Was Jim Carrey Paid To Play The Grinch?
According to Showbiz Cheat Sheet, the film made Carrey $20 million, which became one of his highest-earning salaries, despite having already starred in a number of hits at that point including The Mask, Ace Ventura, and Dumb and Dumber.
Still, by 2000, the Canadian native saw his fortune skyrocket after having proven to studios that his movies have quite the tendency of doing big numbers at the box office, so it was only right that Carrey would receive a fair payday.
His salary for How The Grinch Stole Christmas matched the sum he had received for several other films, such as Liar Liar, The Cable Guy, and Me, Myself & Irene, but with the success of his Christmas flick, those numbers only continued to increase.
In 2008, Carrey starred in the film Yes Man, starring Zooey Deschanel and Bradley Cooper — but what made this film so significant to the Hollywood star is that he was paid an eye-watering $35 million after 36.2% of profits from the box office sales were included in his lucrative contract with Warner Bros. Pictures.
Fans noticed that as the years went on, however, Carrey started appearing in fewer movies, but that wasn’t because casting directors weren’t eager to work with him but because the actor somewhat lost his passion somewhere down the line.
In a 2018 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, where Carrey discussed being very selective with the projects he does these days, he admitted: “I just didn’t want to be in the business anymore. I didn’t like what was happening, the corporations taking over and all that.
“And maybe it’s because I felt pulled toward a different type of creative outlet and I really liked the control of painting — of not having a committee in the way telling me what the idea must be to appeal to a four-quadrant whatever.”
“I’m not back in the same way. I don’t feel I’m little Jim trying to hang on to a place in the stratosphere anymore — I don’t feel like I’m trying to hold on to anything.”
The same year, Carrey went on to star as Jeff Pickles in Showtime’s TV series Kidding, and just two years later, he decided to take on the role of Joe Biden as the former comedian booked a couple of gigs on Saturday Night Live.
His last major motion picture came with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog at the top of 2020, which was another box office smash for Carrey, who helped pull in an incredible $310 million at the box office.
It’s believed that playing Dr. Robotnik saw the Dark Crimes star take home an estimated $20 million, having more or less kept the same salary he earned two decades ago, which isn’t that easy when you’ve been working in the film industry for 30 years.
But it’s quite apparent that Carrey’s acting skills can’t be compared, and given his good reputation with other film executives and producers, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t continue earning up to $20 million per motion picture — especially now that booking him for a film is much harder since he’s gotten very choosey with his roles.
In his spare time, when he’s not working on a new movie, Carrey dedicates his time to painting, which he says has become somewhat of a therapeutic thing for him, having painted dozens of artwork at his multi-million dollar home in Los Angeles, California.
In fact, in 2017, he credited his love for painting in helping him get over the sudden breakup with former model Jenny McCarthy.
In his documentary, titled Jim Carrey: I Needed Color, the actor gushed: “When I first started to paint they (the paintings) were everywhere. They became part of the furniture. I ate off them. When you're falling in love, you're floating, weightless.
“But when you lose that love, you have to reenter the atmosphere and it can get pretty rough, because you're just bouncing off one molecule and onto the next, rippin' through them at such a pace that they just ignite and explode, until you find another heart that's doing the same thing, has landed and cooled, and then you start to float again.”