system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: When a movie star signs up for a big budget movie how/when does he/she get paid?

Do they get a weekly or bi-weekly paycheck? A lump sum?
gpt
Talent agent here... they get paid multiple times in various ways.  There's the lump sum upfront guaranteed money (ie We'll pay you $10M dollars to do this film), royalties (plus 2% of box office sales, TV broadcoasts and DVD sales), and bonuses/incentives (plus another $1M if you do a publicity tour in Europe, with another $500k if we do $25M in box office sales there), plus numerous other ways depending on the particular movie.  The timing of how each of those is paid out (1 giant check vs regular payments) is completely negotiable, and varies from deal to deal based on what the actor prefers... some need money asap, some want scheduled payments to make taxes/finances easier to manage.  Even who gets to hold the money before it's paid is negotiable (is it put in escrow, or does the studio get to hang onto it?).  There's no one answer unfortunately... every last bit varies every single time.