You wouldn’t think comedies would be profitable, but like horror films, they are usually pretty cheap to make. Diaz starred in Bad Teacher, which only cost $20M to make, and she had a salary of $1M.
Here’s the catch! Diaz went on to renegotiate her contract to include a large chunk of the film’s box-office earnings before it hit theaters. The film went on to make about $216M, so Diaz finished off with a payday of $42M, higher than it cost to make the movie itself. That’s a big-time power move.