Granted, it helped him being connected to the right people in the beginning, but his performances won him lots of interest despite being in some meh films in the late 80s. Then he broke through with Moonstruck only to follow it up with several stinks in the early 90s. Then ... boom! Kiss of Death and Leaving Las Vegas and suddenly he's back.

The Rock.

Con Air.

Face/Off.

Nicolas Cage starts buying houses EVERYWHERE. His career is on the up up up. Then City of Angels and some other lackluster films bring him back down to earth until Gone in 60 Seconds and National Treasure happened. When the 2010s hit, more terrible films came next. Two horrible Ghost Rider films, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Season of the Witch.

At this point, he's so in debt that he'll literally take anything. Look at how many films this guy made in 2018 and 2018 combined: FOURTEEN. He was in FOURTEEN films in two years. 23 total films from 2016-2019. Who has time for that? Nic Cage.

And now he's playing Spider-Man at age 60.