Hollywood and big checks are like franks and buns, fine by themselves but together is the norm.

This makes seeing how much the stars we have watched and loved get paid for various projects that much more amusing. Some celebrities make millions on television, while others appear to make very little in classic blockbusters; and some earn massive checks on the big screen.

Julia Roberts

Roberts, for her role in the Jennifer Aniston starrer Mother’s Day, got paid $3 million for simply four days of shooting.

Small role, big paycheck

According to the folks at Variety, the 48-year-old actress was paid $750,000 per day for her cameo in Mother’s Day, that too for just about 6 minutes of screen time in the film. The movie however only grossed a disappointing $8.3 million on its opening weekend.

Gary Marshall, the director of Mother’s Day – which stars Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis, and Kate Hudson; has worked with Roberts on multiple projects, previously.

Roberts had earned $20 million for her Oscar-winning performance in Erin Brockovich.

Roberts also revealed that her husband, Danny Moder, traveled in from New Zealand to surprise her on the set of Mother’s Day.

Julia Roberts & Daniel Moder
“We were Facetiming, I was at work, and he was in New Zealand,“
she explained.
“Then he said, “Wait, I have something to show you,”

and the phone rang, and he was with our three children, who had been staying at my hotel while I was working. That’s when I realized he was in town to catch me off guard.”

Julia Roberts

While Roberts was surprised, she also confessed she was embarrassed since she was wearing an ugly wig for her role in the new film.

“I was so embarrassed in my wig, I was like, ‘What?‘”  she explained.

“Oh my goodness!”

The Queen Bee of Hollywood

There aren’t many names that can compete with Julia Roberts when it comes to the greatest actresses in contemporary Hollywood history.

Yes, there are other success stories out there, but Roberts’ story isn’t like any other.

She rose to prominence in the 1980s with Mystic Pizza, but it was Pretty Woman and Flatliners in the 1990s that catapulted her to stardom. She wasn’t making much money back then, but as her popularity grew, so did her earnings.

Pretty Woman (1990)

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Roberts ended up taking multiple hits, one after another. This made her Hollywood’s Queen Bee, and while other actresses were achieving wonderful things, they were all striving to keep up with Julia Roberts.

Roberts’ films have reportedly grossed more than $6 billion at the box office. Given that she has never been a part of a major franchise, with the exception of her work in the Ocean’s franchise, credit has to be given where credit is due, and here it very evidently is.

Few people can reach such heights of professional success without the help of billion-dollar franchises (especially in Hollywood), but Roberts did it by selecting excellent projects with maximum appeal.