Bear in mind, $20m in 1996 is worth about $37m today. So $50m to secure your very likeable lead actor for a $250-300m movie that's gonna sell like gangbusters internationally is actually not that bad.

You gotta remember, Jim Carrey got literally a few hundred thousand for the first movie he made in 1994. Between Dumb & Dumber, The Mask and Ace Ventura, he went from TV comic to movie superstar, and 2 years later, his salary was on par with Tom Cruse. That's why his paycheck was noteworthy... The rate of increase was insane and he had jumped into the A-list so quickly.