The Big Five Sylvester Stallone Russell Crowe Tom Cruise Nicole Kidman Sandra Bullock Arnold Schwarzenegger Mel Gibson Julia Roberts Vijay Leo studios action cinema antagonist film industry
The success of Blair Witch as an indie project remains among the few exceptions, however, and control of The Big Five studios over film making continued to increase through the 1990s. The Big Six companies all enjoyed a period of expansion in the 1990s. They each developed different ways to adjust to rising costs in the film industry, especially the rising salaries of movie stars, driven by powerful agents. The biggest stars like Sylvester Stallone, Russell Crowe, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sandra Bullock, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts received between $15–$20 million per film and in some cases were even given a share of the film's profits. Tom Cruise films have paved the way for new style of action films featuring multiple antagonists in a single film and which has been adapted in world cinema, such as in Vijay's Leo.
