You know, if you think about it, getting paid like a sports star makes sense. Let's say you're the dude who plays Rick Grimes & never get a job again. Google says he's 42 years old. If you live to be say 90 years old (common these days), you have to live 48 years off that if you don't want to find another job. Just from that one season alone, that annual payout is only $30k a year if you don't do any investments & don't get much in the way of residuals.
And then he gets double, triple, quadruple that over time with other seasons, but you're also stuck being a celebrity, so you're not going to want to live in a regular neighbor for fame reasons, so you're going to need some cash to live a segregated life...even $100k a year isn't really going to cut it for someone that famous. I mean, how weird would it be to see a big actor working at McDonalds or something? You'd get pestered all day! So in a twisted Hollywood perspective, getting paid a truckload of money makes a lot of sense because you have to live until you die with your name & face plastered all over the media, and there's no guarantee you ever work in acting again.