Hollywood Stars Who Lost Money Starring in Their Films: From Brad Pitt to Kevin Costner and More

How much would you shell out to win an Oscar? Just ask Patricia Arquette, who was paid peanuts to do the 2014 flick and walked away with a golden statue.

She explained: "It's important to me as an actor to be able to make a living, but I'm going to tell you something — I paid more money to my babysitter and my dog walker than I made to be in Boyhood."

Taking a $1 million salary for the musical fantasy comedy, which Jack Black split with band member Kyle Gass, instead of his normal $12 million to bring his movie to theaters, the film Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny made $13.9 million and cost $20 million.

They say that time heals all wounds, and that must include financial fiascos as Black has talked about making a sequel to the 2006 bomb.

Long before Horizon: An American Saga, Kevin Costner put his money where his mouth was with 1997's The Postman, which cost $80 million to produce and returned just $17 million in the U.S.

"Well, I always thought it was a really good movie!" Costner insisted. "I know that if you revisit the movie, that's a good thing to do. You can go back and revisit some movies that made well over $100 million and you might not care anything about them. And you can go back and maybe review a movie like that — you know, it was a pretty big, epic movie."

Sharon Stone's salary didn't cover her Oscars gown and outfits to promote the 1992 megahit.

"I didn't get paid to do Basic Instinct," Stone shared. "I made a little bit of money. Michael [Douglas] made $14 million and has points. I made not enough money to buy my dress to go to the Oscars the next year. I was in this weird limbo where I was suddenly famous, but didn't have any money."

Brad Pitt had loads of excitement for the 2007 film, but passion doesn't pay the bills! The Western with the mile-long name drew a lousy $15 million against a $30 million budget.

"The way producers get us actors on is if it's something we love and have to do, we do it for a price and get the movie made," said Pitt. "It actually cost me money in the end. I paid to work on that one, and I think the film still lost money, but it was one of my favorites and one of the most rewarding to me."

Her $3,500 salary wasn't enough to cover her expenses to walk the red carpet!

"I basically made no money," Rebel Wilson revealed of the 2011 comedy. "I lost money because I had to pay to go to the premiere, like to buy my dress and everything. That was a really skint year where I was living on $60 a week in L.A. once I'd paid my rent and my car hire. I wasn't partying or living this [A-list] life. It was basically having that focus, trying to write for myself, like going to auditions."

Calling it "the most painful failure in my career," Will Smith and his Overbrook Entertainment production company shelled out $150 million to make the 2013 movie and spent another $100 million to promote it. It brought in a mere $243 million.

"What I learned from that failure is how you win," Smith philosophized. "I got reinvigorated after the failure of After Earth. I stopped working for a year and a half. I had to dive into why it was so important for me to have number-one movies. And I never would have looked at myself in that way."

John Travolta remained proud of the movie he made in 2000, even though it cost $73 million to create and banked just $29.7 million at the box office. Any regrets?

"No way, are you kidding? Why would I ever regret that? I had the power to do whatever I wanted, and I chose to do a book that I thought was worthy of making into a movie. It's a beautiful film. It's a good movie," he said.

George Clooney wore many hats making the 2008 football comedy — he co-wrote, directed and starred in it through his Smokehouse Pictures. Hopes for a hit were intercepted as it raked in $41.3 million but cost $58 million to make, leaving him about $17 million in the hole.