Keanu Reeves Net Worth: 'John Wick' Actor Earned Just $3,000 In First Movie

Keanu Reeves is an actor, producer and philanthropist most famous for his role in “The Matrix” franchise that has grossed more than $1.6 billion in total. The Hollywood star’s latest success is the “John Wick” series that has become a box office hit. But Reaves’ salary from his debut movie is a far cry from his current fortune.

Thanks to the actor’s success in the movie industry, he currently has an estimated net worth of $350 million. Reeves was paid a total of about $200 million from all sources, including base salary and bonuses, for the entire “Matrix” franchise. His latest success is a stark contrast to his first movie, “Youngblood,” where he was paid only $3,000, as per Celebrity Net Worth.

Reeves’ basic salary for the first “Matrix” movie released in 1999 was $10 million. His earnings for the sequels were $15 million each for “The Matrix Reloaded” and “The Matrix Revolutions.” But the majority of his wealth came from bonuses from the franchise. He earned more than $120 million in bonuses alone from the second and third movies, which made him the highest-earning actor from a single franchise.

The “John Wick” actor was paid about $1 million to $2 million for the first movie in the series and reportedly got about $2 million to $2.5 million for the sequel. Reeves exchanged a massive salary for a stake in the franchise, rather than just a percentage of the gross revenue, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Reeves is also known for taking massive pay cuts for his movies to help fund projects. A good example to this is the 1997 film “Devil’s Advocate” where he deferred $2 million of his base salary, so they could bring Al Pacino on the set. “Money is the last thing I think about. I could live on what I’ve already made for the next few centuries,” Reeves said during an interview with the Chicago Tribune.

The actor was known to be giving to his crew members, such as in “The Matrix” where he gave a set builder a Christmas bonus of $20,000 because he heard the staff was having family troubles. In the sequel, “The Matrix Reloaded,” where the actor had a stunt crew of 12 people, he gave each of them a brand new Harley Davidson motorcycle. The price for each one ranges from $7,000 up to $40,000 in today’s market.

“We were all in this thing, and we were training together beforehand. I just wanted to give a bigger thank-you to all these guys who helped me make this, I think, one of the great movie fights in the history of cinema,” Reeves said in an interview with Seattle Post-Intelligencer.