Wonder Woman is a huge hit. In America, the film has already made $275 million. Overseas, the film’s box office is very close to crossing the $300 million mark. There is every reason to believe that when all is said and done and all of the rentals, DVD sales and streaming money comes in months from now that Wonder Woman will easily be a billion-dollar movie. The heart of the movie is Gal Gadot and her performance as Diana. Warner Bros went on a global search to cast Wonder Woman, and they wanted to build her story through the Superman franchise, which is why Gadot was first hired for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Still, Warner Bros. knew that they were going to build WW into her own franchise, which is why they got Gal Gadot to sign a three-picture deal, for BvS, a stand-alone WW movie and Justice League. The problem? She’s only getting paid $300,000 for each film.
It’s been reported that Gal Gadot made $300,000 for her role in Wonder Woman. Of course, $300,000 is nothing to sneeze at, and this number comes without accounting for the bonus actors receive once their film passes a box office milestone — something Wonder Woman is sure to achieve. However, when you consider that Wonder Woman has already made $500 million and has just crossed its third week in theaters, less than half a million seems cheap.
In the grand scheme of superhero franchises, Gadot’s reported payday seems to be more of the rule rather than the exception. Gadot originally signed on for three DC movies, each of which would pay the actress $300,000 — Batman v. Superman, Wonder Woman, and the upcoming Justice League. Conversely, Marvel powerhouse and my personal favorite Chris, Chris Evans signed onto the first Captain America movie for only $300,000. Between their multi-contract deals and the staggering cost of these movies, it’s not unusual for some lesser superhero stars to see salaries in this range for their multi-million and billion dollar movies. Not everyone can be Robert Downey Jr., who negotiated his way into an over $40 million payday for a Captain America movie (Captain America: Civil War).
But don’t think this news comes without pay discrimination critiques. Henry Cavill earned a reported $14 million for his role in Man of Steel. Judging by that as well as Batman v. Superman’s $300 million budget and star power, it doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility that Ben Affleck and Jesse Eisenberg saw larger paydays than Gadot. Also, Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman were two movies that flopped so hard, they’ve essentially become running jokes. Wonder Woman, on the other hand, is an actually good movie that audiences are willingly paying money to see. A lot of that success comes down to Gadot’s powerful and vulnerable performance. The bottom line is that DC and Warner Bros. need to give Gal Gadot more money.
The part that upsets me is that Henry Cavill got $14 million for his first turn as Superman. I get why Gadot was only paid $300,000 for BvS – she was not the main focus, and it was the “soft introduction” for that character. But you know she probably got the least amount of money in that entire cast, and they underpaid her for the stand-alone WW movie, which she carried on her back. You know what will really kill me? If we find out that Chris Pine made more money than Gal for Wonder Woman. Ten bucks says he did.
Update: Variety is reporting that, since Gal’s base salary figure doesn’t include potential bonuses for box office performance, it doesn’t capture her true earnings, which will hopefully be closer to the $14 million that Cavill made for Superman.
Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.
Completely agree. The discrepancy between the Cavill and Gadot salaries is outrageous!
If the figures quoted are true, she needs to poach Cavill’s agent quickly!
I wish the federal anti-discrimination laws applied to Hollywood. I’d love to sit on a jury during a Title VII lawsuit.
Firstly, this story is not true in the reporting and shows that the writer doesn’t understand how hollywood salaries are structured.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/gal-gadot-got-paid-same-as-henry-cavill-superhero-debuts-1015202
To sum: Cavill didn’t get $14M upfront.
Cavill was paid entry level fee similar to Gal, but worked in bonuses tied to box office. After all receipts were in, his bonuses added upto an eventual $14M.
If Gal didn’t negotiate bonuses into her contract, then she has a shitty agent. However, if she did, then her eventual take home pay for WW, that includes those bonuses, will exponentially increase her salary.
@LAK Thank you for that information. Now maybe everyone can actually read what you have reported and calm down. (Unlikely!)😏
Deadline’s reporting much the same thing, that the numbers are wrong:
http://deadline.com/2017/06/gal-gadot-wonder-woman-pay-henry-cavill-1202117011/
Thanks for the clarification, LAK. Here’s hoping!
Oh I’d not doubt Pine got more money for his role. he’s white, male and considered a bigger star (until now). I only hope her team were smart enough to work in a clause that she gets a %, she’ll end up raking it in, and also given how strong this film has performed…maybe there is wiggle room for updating her subsequent appearances. She deserves every penny. DS was dying a death until this movie and they should bow and scrape at her feet and the directors.
Chris Pine is still considered a bigger star than she is–he has a more proven track record.
I hope she ends up making the big money.
all movies Pine starred in as the lead, outside the StarTrek shitty franchise, have bombed BIG WAY. All of them, with the exception of 12mln budgeted HoHW, which ended just breaking even. So why is he still considered a bigger star? In any case nobody NOBODY went to see Wonder Woman saying, “oh, a Pine’s movie, I got to get my butt in there”
Hell or High Water had a 12 million production budget. The domestic gross was 27 million and (according to Box Office Mojo and The Numbers.com) the foreign gross was 10.5 million for a 37.5 million worldwide total. And the worldwide total doesn’t include DVD sales that are always included in a film’s final life-time gross. I think Hell or High Water did better than just break even.
Chris Pine is a very talented actor who is now considered A-list. Many of the reviews praising Wonder Woman credited Pine’s acting talent, screen presence, charm, and chemistry with Gal Gadot with partial success of the film. In other words, Gal Gadot had a very good dance partner. This doesn’t take anything at all away from her because as I’ve said before, she is all kinds of awesome and a talented actress. But Pine is the real deal.
This is Gal Gadot’s first feature film lead. Her other film roles have been small (she had a 2-minutes scene in Tom Cruise’s film Knight and Day) and ensemble supporting (in her 3 Fast and Furious films). Chris Pine (I’ve read) only got $500,000 for the first Star Trek film, and he had co-stared in films prior to that.
Gal’s salary will definitely increase to 7 figures for the sequel. She is all kinds of awesome!
Chris Pratt dIdn’t get much for the first Guardians of the Galaxy, not a big enough star, and it made squillions. I’m sure her fee will go up massively.
unbelievable! I’m so disappointed to learn this news
Same here
Ugh. This is bad but not horrible. Gal Gadot was a no name when they cast her as Wonder Woman as was Chris Evans with Captain America. They had low hopes apparently for each. Chris Pine has another franchise and they probably cast him hoping to gain his followers. Now that Wonder Woman is successful Gal Gadot should ask for more money for the WW sequel.
But for us regular people just because you have a successful year they don’t fix the pay discrepancy especially one so large. Also, not sure the success of wonder woman is really gal gadot or the female director that also directed Monster.
It sucks but the big money should really go to the director cuz it was her that made this film a complete success.
Cavil wasn’t a big name either, still got a lot more.
LIke him or not, Chris Pine is Captain Kirk. Of course he’s going to make more money, even for a supporting part.
But what I want to talk about is who on earth thought Cavill was worth $14 million. That is some terrible negotiating. His biggest credit at the time was his supporting part on The Tudors. Does he have pretty much the most amazing agent ever, or are the people at WB truly that bad at doing business? Because Gadot’s $300K is definitely more in line for the typical “unknown” salary in the genre. Good thing it was only for 3 movies as well – she’s got incredibly leverage to negotiate her new contract.
I’ve seen in other articles that Cavill’s salary may be including bonuses, because otherwise that’s insane as a base salary for an unknown.
I hope that Gadot had those bonus clauses as well.
I can understand why Pine may have gotten more, but if there is any truth to Cavill’s salary for Man of Steel, than the discrepancy between Gadot’s salary and Cavill’s for their respective solo films is egregious. Apples to apples, both were fairly unknown when they landed their DC gigs and both spent the bulk of their careers as supporting players in ensemble films and TV shows. If anything, Gal’s most high profile gig pre-WW, F&F film franchise, was definitely more high profile than Henry’s biggest gig pre-SM, The Tudors.
UPDATE: apparently, it has been pointed out that the number for Cavill is only traced back to some random website “Richest” and that he very likely was NOT paid $14 million.
He was paid basic entry level salary just like Gal, but he negotiated bonuses that exponentially increased his eventual take home pay.
Whoever reported this story doesn’t understand hollywood pay structures.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/gal-gadot-got-paid-same-as-henry-cavill-superhero-debuts-1015202
Robert Downey Jr. only received $500k for the first IM and he was well known but due to his past transgressions they paid him less. Fortunately the success of that film garnered him better negotiations for the sequel and he got 12 mill for IM2.
Hopefully Gal can now get a few mill for her most famous and successful role.
While it does suck she made the same base salary as Chris Evans who has way more name recognition when he first signed on as Cap. The bigger issue I have is with Cavill who didn’t have name recognition. But I doubt 14 mil was his base pay either.
Chris Pine is established and already part of another franchise…I would expect him to pay more.
Even contrasting THG had paid the two leads (JLaw and Josh Hutcherson) 500K as a base salary. So it seems par for the course with these movies.
Now if they don’t give her the millions for the next WW then I’ll scream.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/gal-gadot-got-paid-same-as-henry-cavill-superhero-debuts-1015202
Time for someone to renegotiate her contract. This is absurd.
ITA. She is the only stand out in the truly crappy DC franchise.
Sad that she accepted the money. If women say no across the line then maybe it will be different. But she will get more the next film. But it sends such a sexist message. She needs better people fighting for her.
This!
So gross.
And really, she’s probably only going to clear $75k.
$300k – taxes = $150k
Then you subtract percentages for manager, agent, business manager, lawyer.
Hopefully she’ll get increases with each film and a percentage of profits.
Ugh is right. And that’s before thinking about Chris Pine’s possible salary. Double ugh.
100% Chris Pine got more money than Gal Gadot for WW movies, he is a bigger star and has more of a draw. Saying that Gal Gadot is WONDER WOMAN, its ridiculous she only got this amount for the movies. She better get a much bigger pay day going forward, she is killing it in not only the movie but also the promotion of the movie. After she pasys fees and taxes, she probably only made $150,000, if even
It’s unfortunate, but I’m sure her team is already all up Warner Bros for her merited raise. And yes of course Chris Pine was getting her better paycheck than her. Never change Hollywood.
Important to note, the article doesn’t say Cavill got $14,000,000 up front. That may be with his bonuses, must like Gal is going to get more money later.
I think you are right. That seems a ridiculous number for what was then an unknown actor.
Exactly! Once it’s all said and done, she’ll be making bank from the back end part of the movie, getting a percentage of profits. I think they will totally negotiate her salary for the sequels, as well.
She needs to renegotiate her contract ahora mismo!
Not too sound defeatist, but the total BO doesn’t seem impressive. I mean, those look like Pirates numbers.
I saw the film twice. I loved it, but I wonder if the low-key marketing resulted in lower returns. And the international numbers seem low too.
You have me wondering. I like to talk box office. WW will certainly not make AVENGERS MONEY, but I read several predictions that it would outgross MAN OF STEEL. Anyway, thanks for the comment.
Pirates did well, unfortunately.
WW is doing very well actually. It’s obviously nowhere near Avengers money, but it’s set to make about the same as Captain America 2, and a bit less than GotG 1. That’s a good showing, better than expected. This was never meant to be a film that makes 1 billion+.
573 million world wide after nearly three weeks is actually very impressive. It may be part of the DC universe but it’s not an established movie franchise on its own, unlike PoC.
Diana Prince gotta get her an Amazonian Lawyer and come to the Table again to talk Turkey, She and Patty Better be getting the Robert Downey Jr special Back end and Merchandising profit deal and it better happen STAT
Did she get a backend? Or I guess going forward, she might do?
What?! Wow.
If this is true, then she must have agreed to it, right? I know it doesn’t seem fair but ultimately she had to be in agreement with this. That doesn’t make it right but if she wanted more then she or her management should have negotiated for more. She’s definitely worth it.
According to rumors, Saoirse Ronan lost out on the Scarlet Witch part that Whedon was writing with her specifically on his mind because she asked for more money… So even if you’re a casting dream it’s still risky business to go toe-to-toe with the studios. The ammount of money Cavill made is beyond insulting in this context.
I can “sort of ” understand her getting a low salary since she was virtually unknown so they couldn’t sell it on her “star power”. However, when I then read that Henry Cavill received $14 million for Superman, WTH?! Talk about an unknown. I had to look up at the article to see how to spell his name for this comment.
Typical. I hope Gadot negotiates for a ridiculously higher salary for the sequel & gets a percentage of the back end (Jeremy Renner…I’m looking at you).
I hope Gal was able to negotiate a percentage of the net profits on top of her salary.
Upsetting! This echoes my own workplace experience: the women do the heavy lifting and the men collect the big paychecks. Fair is fair – if a woman does more of the work, she must receive the bigger salary. Enough is enough.
I hope she got a back end deal because otherwise _________________________________!!!!!!!!!!!
We’ve all seen this before. A woman needs to “prove” her worth before she gets paid. A man? Just be a man. Gal should not sign on for the sequel until she gets some insane bump to the tune of $18m. And with a % of the BO take. How’d I arrive at that number? Just pulled it out of my butt bc it seems that’s how the guys get paid.
That’s not how the guys get paid.
Chris Evans got about $7-8 million for Avengers 2 (after starting at $300,000 for Cap 1).
Hemsworth got about $5-6 million for Avengers 2 (after starting at about $200,000 for Thor 1)
Paul Rudd got about $300,000 for Ant-Man and 0.2% of the profits, so about $1.8 million all up.
Chris Pratt got about $350,000 upfront for GotG 1, and only about 1.5 all up including his back-end deal. No word on his salary for the sequel, but it’ll be under $10 million including the back-end.
Ruffalo get’s $1-3 million each Avengers film, almost entirely as a back-end deal.
The only people making full blown movie star money out of the latest batch of superhero films are RDJ, Ben Affleck and ScarJo. RDJ because he became invaluable to Marvel after Iron Man 1, Affleck and ScarJo because they went into it as household names.
And even RDJ and Scarjo signed on to their first Marvel films – Iron Man 1 for him and 2 for her – for $500k and $400k respectively. The later pay rises for the Avengers cast came about because RDJ basically held Marvel to ransom to demand that his costars got higher salaries going forward.
Marvel is notorious for lowballing stars for their intro films, looks like DC followed a similar model. And $14 million to Cavill? They better be kidding, or that was backend and then Gal should clear that much too.
This salary is low but it’s normal… I read somewhere that Daisy Ridley and John Boyega got 450.000 for The Force awakes… then got more because the movie made 2 billion.
I think for the second movie she should get at least 4 million….no much more than that because honestly she is unknow actress…
450k is still 50% over GG’s salary. You know why? She got paid less because women aren’t considered equal to men.
Daisy Ridley is a woman.
She had NO name recognition when she was cast, of course she got a low-ball deal. If her representation is decent she’ll be able to leverage WW’s success.
It’s the same with Marvel and other big franchises. RDJ only started raking in money on back-end deals when he proved he was valuable. The first Chris’s were seen as fairly expandable for a while so got paid (relative) peanuts. Even now Evans get’s under $10 million for Avengers films and Hemsworth get’s around $5-6 million. That’s including their tiny back-end deals. Meanwhile ScarJo came in and made a fortune because she was already a name.
For more comparisons, Andrew Garfield made $500,000 for Spiderman 1 and not much more for 2, Chris Pratt got about $350,000 upfront for the first GotG film plus about 1.2 million from his small back-end deal (Dave Bautista got the same, Cooper got more just for voice work), Paul Rudd got around $300,000 for Ant Man plus something like 0.2% of the profits, so less than $2 million. Tom Hiddleston barely got $150,000 for The Avengers with no back-end deal.
BTW, people are just guessing that Cavill got 14 million for Man of Steel. It’s highly unlikely he did. The salary info for that has never been made public, and the same sources putting that out there also list his net worth as 14 million or considerably less. It’s possible his entire deal for Superman would have netted him 14 million, but I have a feeling some of the Superman films he was originally contracted for won’t actually be made, and if so he won’t be getting all of that.
Thanks for some perspective @Katie. I had also heard that about the Marvel contracts. Only those who were well-known to begin with began with high salaries. Which makes sense. Sexism exists but not everything is sexism.
Thanks from me also. I frequently say I enjoy gossip, but I enjoy show business news and facts even more. I must say, what a bargain for the MCU’s greatest villain.
Indeed @third ginger! I hope he got a renegotiation somewhere along the line! Of course he is not the star, but a supporting character, I guess. Still what a character – looking forward to Ragnarok! 🙂
100% Katie. You said it in much more detail than I did.
@Katie – even Scarjo didn’t get paid more than $400k up front for Iron Man 2. It was the promise of sequels/future franchise paychecks that kept her in, because iirc she definitely scored 7 figures for the first Avengers film.
Women. Boycott the movie.
@Svea….TOTALLY disagree. Women. Go see the movie, and bring your sons and daughters. Bring your fathers and mothers. Also, Gal was NOT unknown….she came from the Fast and Furious franchise (as Giselle…she was great… i was so upset she was killed off, until I found out she had to leave to do Batman vs Superman). In BvsS she was the STAND OUT! In fact, she made the movie worth watching. And in WW she fulfills the role beautifully. Boycotting would be a silly response. Build women up. Don’t tear them down. Support women. Don’t leave them hanging. Don’t boycott. Let’s support movies with good, strong women in the lead, and in the director’s chair. @Svea, I continue to TOTALLY disagree with your comment.
I bet Cavill won €14 millions after the bonus on benefits.
Very misleading. Cavill has made 14M TOTAL for ALL his work as Superman, not just one movie, including all his bonuses.
Gadot’s base salary is 300K for one movie, without taking into account major money she will receive for box office and merchandise bonuses.
The numbers are not comparing apples to apples at all. More like apples to airplanes.
“Henry Cavill earned a reported $14 million for his role in Man of Steel”
He, too, should have been paid $300,000. He is not worth $14 million…ever.
Unless I’m wrong, that’s in normal range for someone in first movies especially if their name has no recognition. It’s the sequel that they ALWAYS make more money. That’s just how it is. Look at Daisy Ridley, Chris Evans, Chris H..
I don’t really understand how Henry got 14 million, but I’d theorize that he had a good team and remember the budget for MOS >> the budget for WW. They assumed from the get go that, because it’s Superman, it would make money.
Chris Pine making more money is normal because he’s Chris Pine.
That’s clearly what henry got when all is said and done counting the movie’s salary, merchandise, his likeness etc. 250-500k is the standard actors get for franchise starters (kstew, jlaw and shailene woodley all got 500k for their respective movies and got a lot more for the sequels – well, maybe not shailene). Gal will end up making the same and a lot more after merchandise money and backends come in…
To everyone saying Chris Pine is a bigger star, etc., you very well know that an unknown male actor in a starring role would STILL be paid more than established female star in a supporting role.
ScarJo got paid more than everyone bar RDJ for The Avengers films, and more than Chris Evans for Cap 2.
JLaw got more than Fassbender and McAvoy for the two X-men sequels (they all got a pittance for the first).
Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield got the same deal for the first Spider-Man film (about $500,000).
Chris Pine was only paid $600,000 for his first Star Trek film, and after 3 outings is still only up to $6 million for the fourth. He won’t have made very much as a supporting character in a new franchise. We aren’t talking about him getting ‘movie star’ money here.
Both ScarJo and especially JLaw aren’t just more established but are bonafide stars. If Chris Pine got paid 600k, that is still twice as much as GG.
I totally understand clout: if Robin Wright got paid more than Gal that’s totally fair and understandable, even Robin playing a supporting role, she’s an stabilised and respected talented actress who can truly enhance every movie she makes. But Pine? tell me which one of his films where he played the lead that are not the StarTrek or whatever that franchise is called, made money? He’s not a star. He doesn’t fill theatre seats.
Recalling James Cameron’s salary while making the Titanic movie. I can’t find link of exact story anymore (20 years ago now) but he was going to be paid zero because it was so far over budget. He gave up his salary or something. If memory serves it was in writing etc. and there was a lot of pressure, once it was a sudden hit, for him to get some of the profits. Maybe someone else here can recall better on this.
Since that was also a contract going in not knowing how well the picture would do, and there was so much pressure for him to get share of profits after it blew the box office open…I’m hoping same happens for Gal. She deserves it. Regardless what salary she agreed to, I hope she has a back end deal but also is given lots more. It’s the right thing to do. Otherwise where do we start marching to protest?
He ended up making over a 100 million for the film in the end. This could be similar for Gal but of course not that high.
I was in a good mood until I saw this. Grrr
She was in three of the “Fast and Furious” movies as well as “Keeping Up with the Joneses” opposite Jon Hamm so she is not a total unknown.
She was an unknown. ‘Unknown’ doesn’t mean ‘has never acted in film before’, it means has no public profile. Gal didn’t have any name recognition until she was cast as WW, and very little face recognition (she wasn’t one of those people you’ve seen in 50 things and just don’t know their name).
Look at JLaw for example. She had been acting for years and had been in some films that got a little attention before Winters Bone. But they were small-ish nothing parts that didn’t raise her public profile. No one outside of Hollywood knew her name and very, very few would recognise her from her work. So she was an unknown when Winter’s Bone came out.
Compare to Emma Stone, who started out in film with Superbad and made a bit of an impact in it. When she got bigger parts in Zombieland and Easy A, she wasn’t an unknown because many people knew her at least a little,even though she’d been in much less than someone like JLaw.
Not surprised because she was a relatively unknown actress – yes she was in the F&F films but she’s was like the 8-10th name on that. She should ofcourse get her payday for the next few films – Nothing scandalous about this.
What’s shocking is that Cavill got 14mill!!!!! Aside from The Tudors and a few things here and there what did he do of not that warranted that kind of pay day. Even Chris Evans was a bigger name than him and he only got 300K too. Cahill has a great agent that’s all I can say.
I’m not upset at her pay for BvS or for WW, because as a standalone figure they had no way of knowing if WW would succeed or not. However, she should have gotten a decent cut on the backend, and should be paid MUCH more for Justice League and any sequels. If that wasn’t written into her contract, she has a terrible agent.
And I wouldn’t even be upset if Chris Pine made more than she did for WW because he’s an established star and she is not. Now, if he made $5 million to her $300k, that’s appalling, but if he made like $750,000-$1 million, I’m ok with that. But Gal is now a bonafide superheroine. She needs to be paid accordingly.
To be fair, she is not an established star. These types of salaries are normal for newcomers.
BTW, she and her husband have sold a luxury hotel in Isreal for 26 Million dollars. She is already rich as hell. She also made 2.5 million off the Fast and Furious movies.
She will be fine.
So angry!!!! She is everything. Down with the patriarchy!!!!!!
I wish I saw what everyone saw in this movie to label it as so amazing. In comparison to the other recent DC movies, I’d say its definitely a step up. But on its own, i feel like it was ok somewhat an anticlimax.
Fear not she will get money for the next go-round. She was paid peanuts as said b/c she was a near-complete unknown and no one knew how WW would perform. With this massive success (this movie WILL break $700 mil worldwide gross, that’s without DVD and other post-theater stream) she is now in prime position to negotiate mega “me likey buy an island’ money from WB.
She IS Wonder Woman, there is no one else right now who can play her and put people in seats (much like Downey and Iron Man), and she’s solo lead unlike the Avengers where the team aspect made everyone more expendable, hence cheaper. The sequel if its as good as this 1st film will likely outdo it. I’d bank on her getting an easy 7-figure base with fairly hefty gross points deal, possibly to rival Downey’s. Four to five percent wouldn’t be out of line.
And Patty Jenkins should get SAME. She is just as valuable imo to this franchise and it’s quality and success. And WB badly needs this franchise.
Maybe re-do this article to reflect the facts, not misinterpreted information that’s being used to cause an unwarranted uproar?
+1
Much ado about nothing. She got a pretty standard salary in line with most everyone in DC/Marvel movies.