In 99% of cases, any actor or actress that stars in a major box office success in any genre is going to see a substantial improvement in their salary for a sequel, with bonuses and back-end profit participation deals typically where most of the money comes from. The most famous example is Robert Downey Jr., who was paid $500,000 for headlining Iron Man, but when the first entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe turned out to be a critical and commercial smash hit, his basic rate for Iron Man 2 was bumped up to $10 million.