The 1990s were a genuinely transformative decade for women in Hollywood. A hit could make an actress feel untouchable, and the money started reflecting that in a way Hollywood had never really seen before. Salaries swelled, back-end deals became gold mines, and a handful of performers reached the point where a paycheck alone could become part of the story around a film. For the women at the very top of that era, the sums were historic.
Those names – Julia Roberts, Demi Moore, Jodie Foster, Nicole Kidman, Sandra Bullock, Cameron Diaz, Whoopi Goldberg, Sharon Stone – once dominated box offices and magazine covers in equal measure. Nearly three decades on, their paths have diverged in fascinating ways. Some never really left the spotlight. Others stepped back on their own terms. Here is where they all ended up.
Julia Roberts – Still Commanding the Room
By 1999, Roberts had become the first woman to ever get paid $20 million for a movie, signing her deal for Erin Brockovich. That milestone cemented her as the defining female star of the era. Roberts went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the title role in the biographical drama Erin Brockovich.
She never really stepped away. In 2022, she reunited with longtime co-star George Clooney for the romantic comedy Ticket to Paradise, a box-office success that recalled her classic charm. The following year, she starred in the Netflix psychological thriller Leave the World Behind, earning praise for her nuanced, haunting portrayal. For that Netflix role, Roberts was paid a staggering $25 million, according to Variety. On February 28, 2025, Roberts was also honored by French Minister of Culture Rachida Dati as a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters for her significant contribution to world cinema.
Demi Moore – A Comeback Decades in the Making
In 1996, Demi Moore earned a jaw-dropping $12.5 million for Striptease, making her the highest-paid actress in Hollywood at the time. Ghost, A Few Good Men, Indecent Proposal, and Disclosure had made her one of the most sought-after stars of the era. Her ascent to that pay level was genuinely groundbreaking, though it came with scrutiny that would follow her for years.
In a 2024 New York Times interview, she reflected on that point in her career, noting that when she became the highest-paid actress, she wondered why the choice was to bring her down, adding that she didn’t take it personally and thought anyone in that position of pay equality would probably have taken a hit. Her 2024 film The Substance earned her a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, marking one of the most celebrated second acts in recent Hollywood memory. Her net worth is estimated at roughly $195 million.
Nicole Kidman – Relentless and Still at the Very Top
In the 1990s, Nicole Kidman was one of the highest-paid actors, earning between $200,000 and $7 million for films such as Days of Thunder, Batman Forever, and Moulin Rouge, among others. She was building toward something larger. Her Oscar win for The Hours in 2003 and her work in Moulin Rouge confirmed her as one of the most versatile actresses of her generation.
Nicole Kidman’s net worth is estimated at $250 million as of 2026, according to Cosmopolitan. She has also starred in television, with her Big Little Lies season two salary reported at $1 million per episode. Her 2024 film Babygirl earned her an Academy Award nomination and renewed conversations about her willingness to take creative risks well into her career’s later chapters. She remains one of the most in-demand actresses alive.
Jodie Foster – Selective, Decorated, and Shifting Directions
The Silence of the Lambs hit theatres in 1991, and its success helped kick off a decade of intriguing roles in money-making movies for former child star Jodie Foster. It also didn’t hurt that the film earned her an Oscar for best actress. Variety reported she was expected to receive $15 million for Anna and the King in 1998, placing her firmly in the top salary tier of the entire decade.
Foster has always operated on her own terms, choosing roles deliberately rather than chasing volume. She won a Golden Globe for her work in the TV series True Detective: Night Country in 2024, proving her ability to shift between film and prestige television with ease. More recently, she has spoken about trading English for French, revealing a plan to star in more French-language films – a move that reflects an actress still genuinely curious about where her craft can take her.
Sandra Bullock – A Graceful Exit on Her Own Terms
Sandra Bullock’s 90s trajectory was built on action thrillers like Speed and crowd-pleasing comedies like Miss Congeniality. She combined humor, warmth, and a natural likability that made her a favorite in both comedies and thrillers, and her versatility allowed her to shine in lighthearted roles and action-packed films alike, establishing her as a reliable box-office draw. That reputation only deepened when she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Blind Side in 2010.
In 2022, after starring in the action-comedy The Lost City opposite Channing Tatum, Bullock announced she was stepping back from acting to focus on her family. It was a rare move for a star of her stature, and she has spoken about prioritizing her children above further career milestones. Her net worth sits at approximately $200 million, slightly less than Julia Roberts, despite a long and highly successful career. She made her exit quietly, and with considerable grace.
Cameron Diaz – Retirement, Then an Unexpected Return
Cameron Diaz’s breakout came with The Mask, where her audition impressed director Chuck Russell and co-star Jim Carrey, despite her lack of formal acting experience. She quickly became one of the most bankable names of the 1990s and early 2000s, with films like There’s Something About Mary and Charlie’s Angels making her synonymous with comedic timing and charisma. By the mid-2000s, she was among Hollywood’s top earners, commanding fees in excess of $15 million per picture.
After stepping away from acting around 2014, Diaz staged a return with the Netflix action-comedy Back in Action in early 2025, co-starring Jamie Foxx. The film became one of Netflix’s most-watched releases of that year, suggesting her appeal had lost none of its pull during her decade away. She remains on the list of top earners that includes experienced entertainers such as Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts, and Jennifer Aniston. Whether her return leads to further projects remains an open question, though the reception suggests there’s no shortage of appetite.
Whoopi Goldberg – From Oscar Winner to Daytime Institution
Besides The Color Purple and Sister Act, Goldberg’s most notable film role is her Oscar-winning turn as medium Oda Mae Brown in 1990’s Ghost, which was the highest-grossing movie that year with box office receipts of $505 million. Goldberg has frequently said that the studio didn’t even want her for the role, but Patrick Swayze insisted she be cast. That casting decision turned out to be one of the defining moments of the decade.
Goldberg serves as The View’s moderator, a role she took on in 2007 when she replaced Rosie O’Donnell. She is one of the rare EGOT winners in entertainment history, holding an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. Her net worth sits at $20 million, accumulated from her decades in award-winning movies such as Sister Act, The Color Purple and Ghost. It’s a figure that reflects an artist who built her legacy on cultural impact rather than peak salaries – and whose presence on daytime television has kept her in the public conversation for nearly two decades.
Sharon Stone – A Complex Legacy and Quiet Reinvention
Sharon Stone’s career exploded in the early 1990s with Basic Instinct, one of the most commercially discussed films of that decade. She followed it with Casino in 1995, which earned her a Golden Globe win and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Among Hollywood’s most prolific names, Stone accumulated 135 acting credits across her career. Her willingness to take on challenging, psychologically complex roles set her apart from many of her contemporaries.
Stone suffered a life-altering brain hemorrhage in 2001 and spent years in recovery, a period she has described in detail in her memoir The Beauty of Living Twice, published in 2021. She has spoken openly about how that experience fundamentally changed her perspective on her career and her life. More recently, she has been focused on advocacy work, humanitarian causes, and selective acting roles. Her path post-1990s was shaped by forces beyond Hollywood, and her resilience in navigating them has come to define her public identity as much as any single film.
The Era They Shaped – and What It Looks Like Today
Big earnings always reveal more than simple popularity, because they capture an era’s power structure, the kinds of movies studios believed in, and the names executives thought could open a film on sheer recognition alone. The women who commanded those figures in the 1990s did so at a time when the pay gap between male and female stars remained enormous. Julia Roberts was one of the very few actresses in Hollywood history to break into the same salary stratosphere as her male counterparts.
Looking at where these women stand in 2026, what emerges is less a story of faded glory than one of divergent choices. Some, like Roberts and Kidman, never stopped working at the highest level. Others, like Bullock and Diaz, stepped back before returning or choosing family over franchise deals. With career box office earnings surpassing $3.9 billion, Roberts remains one of the most commercially successful and critically respected actresses of all time – a benchmark that says something meaningful about what sustained commitment to the craft can look like. The decade that made them famous turned out to be only the beginning of their stories.
