A closer look
Comedian Jim Carrey shattered the Hollywood salary ceiling in 1996 when he demanded and successfully received a completely unprecedented twenty million dollars to star in the incredibly dark comedy The Cable Guy. Studio executives were so desperate to capitalize on the massive success of Ace Ventura and Dumb and Dumber that they willingly handed over a small fortune, only to receive a deeply uncomfortable, psychotic performance that alienated absolutely everyone who came to theaters expecting goofy physical comedy. Carrey basically held the entire industry hostage, set a ridiculous new standard for leading man payouts, and then intentionally sabotaged his own brand by playing a terrifying stalker who ruins a man’s life over television wiring. It remains one of the boldest and most wildly expensive flexes in cinema history, proving that if you make executives enough money with talking butt jokes, they will eventually pay you to psychologically terrorize their core demographic
