Actress Fan Bingbing (C), actors Chun Wu (L) and Li Ming walk the red carpet at the 18th Shanghai International Film Festival in Shanghai, East China, June 13, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

High-earning celebrities are no longer the preserve of the film and television industry. More recently the stars of the internet drama The Legend of Ruyi have earned similar fees. Hebei Daily commented on Thursday:

The reason for celebrities' paychecks being so high is because "stardom" is to some extent believed to be the true box office attraction.

Movie and TV stars have a huge number of fans. Many production companies based on this consideration want to secure the services of the most popular stars, who tend to choose the highest bidder.

However, such star appeal in many cases poisons a movie or TV production. The astronomical fees paid to the stars increases the production costs without necessarily increasing the production value of the movie or show, as the total investment made in the rest of the production usually does not improve significantly.

And such fees paid to the leads often occupy too large a proportion of the total investment. It is bound to squeeze production costs in other areas.

Even worse, many stars make exaggerated demands, which can lead to productions becoming "unfinished projects".