9 Times Actors Actually Lost Money Filming Movies (2 of 5)

2. Patricia Arquette

Sometimes the actors lose money not because the blockbuster underperformed, but because the role simply did not pay much. That’s what happened to Patricia Arquette in Boyhood. The critics highly praised the film, and it even earned her an Oscar, however, the actual compensation was quite different. Arquette said she paid her babysitter and dog walker more than she earned from acting in that movie. That is brutal, but the Oscar win gave the story a good ending.

3. Kevin Costner

Kevin Costner has always been proud of his own projects and will always support them, but that strategy can quickly backfire when a movie fails spectacularly. He helped fund The Postman, believed in it, and then watched it collapse at the box office. The movie reportedly cost over $80 mil to make and earned a measly $17.6 mil in US ticket sales because it was never shown internationally. Regardless of that, Costner has stayed weirdly loyal to it over the years, saying that he may have lost a fortune but still thinks he made art.