Sky's the limit for movie stars' salaries

A still shot from Wu Jing's film "Special Force: Wolf Warrior". [Photo/Mtime.com]

The booming mainland box office has not only benefited the movie industry but also boosted salaries of Chinese actors and actresses.

Wu Jing, a martial arts star who appeared in the series A Time for Consequences, has seen his value as a performer multiply 10 times in recent years, Southern Urban Daily quoted Hong Kong media as saying.

A Time for Consequences had a ticket office take of 500 million yuan (about $80 million) and producers upgraded Wu's fee from 1 million yuan to 10 million yuan per movie, catapulting him to the billion yuan level of his profession.

Others have also increased their earnings, with actor Wu Xiubo seeing his fee rise from 4 million yuan to 25 million yuan per movie after appearing in Finding Mr Right with mainland actress Tang Wei.

Hong Kong star Tony Leung, a winner at the Cannes Film Festival for his leading role in In the Mood for Love, has seen his fee rise from 30 million yuan to 45 million yuan. The new salary standard will be applied to the movie Bai Du Ren (The Ferryman), whichi will start shooting this month.

Among stars in the "more expensive list", Hong Kong actors Nick Cheung and Francis Ng's paychecks show the sharpest rises. Cheung, for example, has quadrupled his salary in only two years.

After playing one of the leading roles in The Man From Macau, which enjoyed a box office take of nearly 1 billion yuan, Cheung's paycheck grew from 12 million yuan to 20 million yuan.

Despite such asteep rise, Cheung's agent said money is not the priority and that Cheung would like to star in really suitable movies. He also said that"to increase the standard means less movies, but guarantees quality."