Matt Damon famously turned down the lead role in James Cameron's 2009 sci-fi phenomenon Avatar, walking away from a contract that offered him ten percent of the film's backend box office profits.

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Matt Damon famously turned down the lead role in James Cameron's 2009 sci-fi phenomenon Avatar, walking away from a contract that offered him ten percent of the film's backend box office profits. Because Avatar went on to become the highest-grossing film in cinematic history, Damon's polite refusal ended up costing him an estimated $250 million, a sum that haunts him to this day in almost every late-night talk show interview he does. Cameron originally wanted a big-name star to anchor his weird movie about blue cat aliens, but eventually settled for Sam Worthington, a guy most people still can't pick out of a police lineup. While Damon's career certainly survived the blunder, the sheer psychological weight of knowing you lost a quarter of a billion dollars because you preferred to shoot a mediocre Jason Bourne sequel is the kind of uniquely Hollywood tragedy that brings joy to the hearts of bitter working-class people everywhere