Becoming a movie star is a tough deal. Even if you are a talented professional actor, you probably have more chances of getting hit by a meteor while walking to your car on a beautiful sunny afternoon than becoming a star.

However, for the very very few who make it, the monetary rewards can be substantial, to say the least.

Here is a Before-After picture of how much some famous stars made in the first movies and where they ended up a few Oscars later.

Julia Roberts

$50,000 for Mystic Pizza (1988)
$25 Million for Mona Lisa Smile (2003)

Tom Cruise

$75,000 for Risky Business (1983)
$70 Million (includes a percentage of gross) for Mission: Impossible (1996)
$75 Million (includes a percentage of gross) for Mission: Impossible II (2000)

Denzel Washington

$10 Million for Courage Under Fire (1996)
$20 Million for The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

Halle Berry

$600,000 for Monster's Ball (2001)
$14 Million for Catwoman (2004)

Jack Nicholson

$12,500 for On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970)
$60 Million for Batman (1989)
$10 Million for About Schmidt (2002)

Paul Newman

$17,000 for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
$1,000,000 + 10% of gross for The Towering Inferno (1974)

Dustin Hoffman

$17,000 for The Graduate (1967)
$5,800,000 plus a percentage of gross for Rain Man (1988)

Elizabeth Taylor

$200 a week for There's One Born Every Minute (1942)
$1,000,000 plus 10% of the gross for Cleopatra (1963)
$1,100,000 plus 10% of the gross for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

Sean Connery

$100,000 for Dr. No (1962)
$17 Million for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)

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