List of highest-paid screenwriters

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No.	Title	Screenwriter	Summary	Est. Total	Notes
1.	Déjà Vu	Terry Rossio & Bill Marsilii	$2 million guarantee + $3 million production bonus^[1]	$5 million^[2]
2.	The Long Kiss Goodnight	Shane Black	$4 million	$4 million
3.	Panic Room	David Koepp	$2million guarantee + $1 million production bonus and $1 million for services as producer	$4 million
4.	Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby	Will Ferrell and Adam McKay	$4million	$4 million	Ferrell also starred and McKay directed
5.	Basic Instinct	Joe Eszterhas	$3 million	$3 million
6.	Medicine Man	Tom Rickman	$3 million	$3 million	Screenplay was rewritten by Tom Stoppard, who shared screenplay credit
7.	EuroTrip	Alec Berg, David Mandel & Jeff Schaffer	$3 million	$3 million	Adapted from their spec script '“The Ugly Americans”
8.	The Pink Panther	Steve Martin	$3 million	$3 million	In addition to $25 million to play the lead, Martin was paid $3 million to rewrite the script
9.	Mozart and the Whale	Ron Bass	$2million + $750, 000 production bonus	$2.75 million
10.	A Knight's Tale	Brian Helgeland	$2.5 million	$2.5 million	Helgeland also directed
11.	Jade	Joe Eszterhas	$2.5 million	$2.5 million
12.	Twister	Anne-Marie Crichton and Michael Crichton	$2.5 million	$2.5 million
13.	Evan Almighty	Bobby Florsheim & Josh Stolberg	$2.5 million + 2% true profits	$2.5 million	Adapted from their script ”The Passion of the Ark”
14.	The Break-Up	Vince Vaughn, Jeremy Garelick & Jay Lavender	$2.25 million	$2.25 million	Vaughn was also paid $12.5 million to star
15.	You, Me and Dupree	Mike LeSieur	$2.25 million	$2.25 million
16.	Radio Flyer	David Mickey Evans	$2 million	$2 million	Evans was the original director before being replaced by Richard Donner; Donner was paid $5 million
17.	Forever Young	Jeffrey Abrams (a.k.a. J. J. Abrams)	$2 million	$2 million
18.	Showgirls	Joe Eszterhas	$2 million	$2 million
19.	Courage Under Fire	Patrick Sheane Duncan	$2 million	$2 million
20.	Switchback	Jeb Stuart	$2 million	$2 million	Stuart also directed
21.	Pearl Harbor	Randall Wallace	$2 million	$2 million

[edit] References and notes

^ The production bonus is usually paid when the film goes into production and writers receive solo screenplay credit. Shared screenplay credit usually reduces bonus by 50 %.
^ Ryan Cormier. "Writer's strike puts Del. native 'on the line'", The News Journal, 2008-01-13. Retrieved on 2008-01-13. "Marsilii, who sold the "Déjà Vu" script to Disney for $5 million...."