As we just discussed in the Ashley Judd post, the new issue of Variety focuses on women’s rights, sexism and feminism in Hollywood. The conversation coming out of Variety thus far seems very focused on the white women of Hollywood (Emma Watson, Jessica Chastain, Patricia Arquette, Lena Dunham and Meryl Streep are all name-checked), although Salma Hayek – an Oscar-nominated actress and wife of a billionaire – is quoted at length. I’m not negating what they have to say at all. In fact, I think their words are important. I just wish the conversation had been inclusive about what Asian-American, African-American and Hispanic-American women face in the industry as well.
Anyway, there’s already a lot of talk about wage inequality, so Gwyneth Paltrow had to put her two cents in (or she would probably say “two farthings”). Gwyneth, as you probably remember, plays Pepper Potts in the Iron Man and Avengers films, and she’s seen her costar Robert Downey Jr. rake in crazy money for playing Tony Stark/Iron Man. Seriously, RDJ’s backend is a thing of a legend in the industry and it’s widely believed that he’s made just $80 million IN SALARY (not even on the backend) for just two of his last Marvel films. So this is what Gwyneth had to say about wage inequality:
“Look, nobody is worth the money that Robert Downey Jr. is worth,” says Gwyneth Paltrow, referencing the star of the “Iron Man” films, in which she plays Pepper Potts. “But if I told you the disparity, you would probably be surprised.” She started to notice Hollywood’s pay gap for women when her father, Bruce Paltrow, was outraged that a male co-star without a proven track record was getting the same salary as his daughter. “It can be frustrating,” she says. “It can be painful. Your salary is a way to quantify what you’re worth. If men are being paid a lot more for doing the same thing, it feels sh-tty.”
I take Gwyneth’s words about RDJ in both ways, the way she intended and the unintended way. The intended way was probably “RDJ is one of a kind of I’m not saying I should make that kind of money, he built this franchise and he should profit from it.” The unintended way is: “No actor should make the kind of money RDJ makes because his paychecks mean less money for everyone else, especially the women of Marvel.” Beyond that, yes, of course there should be wage equality. Actors at the same “level” of stardom with equally proven box office track records should get paid the same. Of course they should.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I read her commentary on RDJ’s salary as a rebuke ( I am not sure to use the good word)
It sounds like a rebuke to me too, especially when she added her father’s comment about an “unproven” actor earning more than her.
I wonder if that was Joseph Fiennes in Shakespeare in Love? Merely conjecture on my part but he would fit the ‘unproven record’ thing, not being a major star when that came out. I dunno, I’m just guessing. But for once I agree with Goop (urghhh wash my mouth out) – the pay and the disparity are both ridiculous.
RDJ carried the film, she was the girlfriend, if she can carry a billion dollar franchise, then talk. She makes millions for films, of course no one is worth it, but she’d take it. With her Goop, her snobby attitude, normal women cannot afford the crap she promotes on her site.
Im
Whoops – dupe above.
I’m confused at her comment. ‘No one is worth what he’s worth…but if I told you the disparity you’d be surprised.’ Okay, is she referencing the disparity between the two of them?! Hahaha.
Are you kidding? She wasn’t an integral part of the franchise and no one was clamoring to see her in those films as pepper to begin with!
She’s lucky she got the role…and my guess is she did because some old connection (uncle Stephen, uncle Harvey..snicker ) felt sorry for her career being dead in the water so they threw her a comic book movie role bone.
Superhero movies are steady intermittent income in an assured hit for which none of the cast are that responsible for the box office in the least. It drives itself.
So why is she laughably even referring to it as a ‘disparity,’ as that implies she should be getting what he’s getting or near? As if her role as side piece equates to the actual super hero guy.
That said. I never thought RDJ was worth that money, simply because it’s one of those marvel movies that anyone in the lead would have been the benefactor of a huge box office. It could star anyone one from Billy crudup, to Daniel Craig, to Ashton kutcher…and it would’ve been a hit and made them an 80 millionaire.
When RDJ was cast his career was in the toilet. YET, they’re paying him like HE made/makes the box office which is laughable.
None of those marvel actors in my opinion ‘deserve,’ the dough as those movies are machines that can be operated by anyone – most of those guys should consider themselves lucky to have been selected.
In my opinion the marvel and Comic book actors should get a flat fee of 10-20 mil. No one sees Christian Bale movies when he’s not playing Batman, and no one sees Chris hemsworth movies when he’s not Thor.
Does RDJ even make other films aside from the marvel crap? If he does, I wouldnt know because no one sees his non marvel movies either.
“She’s lucky she got the role…and my guess is she did because some old connection (uncle Stephen, uncle Harvey..snicker ) felt sorry for her career being dead in the water so they threw her a comic book movie role bone. ”
The story Marvel told in their early days was that they heard Gwyneth was taking meetings at studios, looking for a mainstream project to be part of. They didn’t think they stood a chance (they were brand new, totally untested, and superhero movies weren’t the dominating force in pop culture), but they lobbied for a meeting. She met with them, and the rest is history. From the way Marvel told it, they were shocked she even agreed to sit down with them, let alone that they got her to be in Iron Man.
I don’t think she is talking marvel specially. I think she was trying to down play the Rdj thing but make the bigger point that she should make more then a lot of men in other films. I think her quote is referencing two different things.
Oh and she is wrong Rdj did not deserve that money! My god that is absurd.
Didn’t I see something back when the first or second Avengers movie came out that RDJ actually took Marvel to task in support of the other actors on the film, to pay them more money?
But Gwennie needs to learn some perspective, I think. Her role in those films is not “worth” anything like what RDJ’s is. That’s not disparity, that’s market value.
@alge
@algernon
I think you might want to rephrase that to read ‘the story Gwyneth’s PR flack got the Marvel team to spin, is some bullsht puffery and fluffery.’
Just a clarification: Iron Man came out in 2008, not 1998. For example there had been 3 Spiderman movies, 2 Fantastic Fours, 2 Incredible Hulks and like 3 XMen. There had been assorted other non marvel superhero franchises that broke the bank. The idea that Gwyneth was some sort of ‘get,’ for them when she was basically working for peanuts in non prestigious Indies and endorsing lancome lamenting how broke she was, is laughable.
Its basically just spin that her PR guy Huvane put out there because it was considered a come down for an actress who was of a certain age, and who had won an Oscar to basically be playing a side piece in a comic book movie. They didn’t think they would get her probably because they thought one known for her snobbery wouldn’t humiliate herself in that way.
@ caro
It’s not that superhero movies weren’t popular, but they hadn’t entirely taken over like they have over the last five years. They were still up and down, and by 2008 we’d seen both X-Men and Spider-Man downgraded with bad sequels, and a Superman movie had just bombed, which was a huge shock at the time, so the superhero future wasn’t as bright as it is right now. But more importantly, *Marvel* was nothing. They were barely a studio at that point. They were shocked *they* got a meeting with her, not that she was willing to be in a superhero movie in general. They had nothing to recommend them at that point. The story they tell is that they were a brand new outfit with no track record and they got one of the most famous women int he world to be in their movie. I gather you don’t like Gywneth, but she was a great get for them back then.
@Caro: superhero movies before the Marvel juggernaut began were NOT a sure thing. For every Spiderman there were a Punisher and a spiderman 3; for every XMEN there was a Ghost Rider. The genre was still very niche. When Iron man was made that movie was very much a gamble, and while you may not like it Gwyneth was very much a ‘get’. And the fact that you referenced the Fantastic Four movies as a success shows that you’ve never watched them.
Also, it’s very clear that Gwyneth isn’t implying that she should have been paid similarly to RDJ – the movie is called Iron Man for goodness sake, not Pepper Potts. Not to mention that she and RDJ are pretty famously tight. Just because you don’t like someone doesn’t mean that they’re an idiot.
And nobody as flaky as she is deserves an Oscar either, especially when her mother, the amazing Blythe Danner, doesn’t have one! See her in Mr. and Mrs. Bridge. She’s brilliant in that and wasn’t even nominated!
I fear for Pepper Potts’ well-being in the next Marvel. She goes off and marries Happy in the comics. 🙂
But seriously, as much as I love RDJ, he’s not worth 80 million as Tony Stark. I can’t believe I agree with GOOP.
I had to look out the window and check that there weren’t any piglets flying about.
I’m reticent to say it, but I also agree with Goop.
RDJ is undoubtedly one of the linchpins of the Marvel film universe, but $80 million in salary for two films is . . . unbelievable. After a certain point, I think that amount of money borders on grotesque.
actually he made that much for both Iron Man 3 and the first avengers. so he actually made $160 million for two films
In terms of how much money he brings into the series as Iron Man, I think maybe he’s getting his portion compared to the billions Marvel receives. You can easily replace Gwenyth and feel nothing in the Avengers/Iron Man universe because Gwenyth is fairly one dimensional but RDJ’s delivery is on point enough to make him an integral part to the franchise.
I am willing to bet that RDJ’s salary was contingent on the movies meeting specific milestones in earnings, e.g. they had to make x amount of money in x time in x markets. And if they didn’t meet those milestones, he wouldn’t have made anything like as much.
It’s very much like the deals authors make (although I should live to see the day a writer earns that kind of money!). You read about somebody making a million-dollar deal, but what you don’t see is that it’s all dependent on the escalator clauses.
If the movie makes a billion and he is a big part of that BO money, I don’t see a problem with it.
Her comment may be a hint to her being in Civil War as Rescue and on Caps side … just kidding
Is ANYONE worth 80 million dollars?
only if one finds the cure to cancer or how to stop global warming or end a nations debt.
I agree that no actor is worth that kind of money, but, that being said, you could replace ANY of those characters in the Avengers movies and nobody would care, except for RDJ as Iron Man….You could replace Chris Evans, put in a new Captain America, for instance, and nobody would bat an eye. But RDJ IS IRONMAN….nobody would buy anyone else as Ironman! Just my opinion…
I am. Please send a check to ” ms. Worth-80-million-just-because”
I don’t think there’s an actor out there that should be worth $80 million for two stupid movies. What the hell is wrong with this world?????
Well, his movies have grossed tremendous amount of money. He deserves it. Besides, I’d rather see him take the money than a bloody studio exec.
The Avengers and Iron man films have collectively grossed more than a billion dollars. 80 million is a drop in the bucket.
Actually the 3 Iron Mans and 2 Avengers grossed over 5 BILLION dollars total. He is a big part of that, not easily replaceable in the role, and should be paid accordingly, even if it is crazy.
As long as people are willing to spend money on movies, this will happen. Bring the audience, get the big paycheck.
I agree. My first thought was “Oh no” I actually agree with some the exalted one has said’ my second is RIP Pepper. Stark and his over-inflated salary will mourn your demise in the next Iron man.
Wtf is RDJ wearing in that picture… And lmao at “Farthings” 😂
While I agree that theoretically nobody is worth that money but really it’s all supply and demand. If those movies didn’t make soooo much money they wouldn’t pay him that much. He is indispensible to that franchise so I feel that is a different scenario to a non franchise film where a successful established actress makes less or the same as an unproven male actor.
As for Gwyneth… B**** give Cate Blanchet back that Oscar you stole from her in the 90s.
He was wearing traditional German lederhosen to the german premier in munich.
@LINN I think it’s the blazer that makes it look stupid, He should have just gone 100% with it if he was going to IMO. It’s all a bit miss match for me.
Urgh, just to clarify (and yup, it’s a minor point but still) the trousers are traditional for Bavaria, not Germany as a whole: you won’t be seeing them outside of Bavaria (thank God).
Her quote is weird. But I think she’s saying that no one deserves as much as RDJ for that movie but the disparity between their pay is still ridiculous ( I believe she was paid between 4 – 8 million on each of the movies). Also in other situations where actors (male and female) do they same work they should be paid evenly.
Her quote doesn’t make sense. She should have said “no one is worth what Robert Downey gets” or words to that effect. Because the way she said it, it negated itself.
I don’t get the story about her dad. Was he unhappy that she was making the same amount as her co-worker? Was she unhappy with his response? I’m confused
Her dad was unhappy that her male costar got as much money as she did, when she had a better resume/track record, and they were cast in equal roles in the film. Which I think is correct.
for the unpopular opinion – if you’ve got the balls and chops to negotiate an incredibly lucrative movie deal, more power to you. This isn’t the same conversation as men and working side by side at McDonalds for unequal pay.
I agree with you. Part of the reason for pay disparity is the actor or their agent is not negotiating well. Movie execs are in it for the money and will pay everyone, male or female, as little as possible to make more profit. It’s not ALL about gender inequality, though not to say sexism is not a factor.
the problem is most women aren’t given the option to negotiate. If they disagree they are replaced. the only reason Charlize and Jlaw were allowed to renegotiate the movies they’re shooting now is because of the Sony leak. It would’ve put that studio in an awkward position had they said no when the public now knew the shady things they did.
Except that women and actors of color are seen as replaceable. If Gwyneth Paltrow’s agent pushes for $10 million, she’s seen as greedy and her role goes to the next young, hot starlet willing to work for peanuts (comparatively). This is shown in other ways by the fact that Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence, both A list actresses at the height of fame, with solid name recognitition, Oscar noms and wins, and proven box office receipts made less than Jeremy f.cking Renner in American Hustle. The pay disparity happens again and again and again. I’m unwilling to believe that every actress in Tinsel Town has a crap agent.
@ bendy wind: EXACTLY! The Sony/American Hustle pay gap shone a huge light on this problem- if it’s happening to JLaw & Amy Adams, it’s happening to every other actress far down the pecking order line. Amy Adams had at least double the screen time of Renner, and JLaw had as much screen time as Renner, and the entire film was marketed (and Oscar nominated) as a four-person film: cooper, bale, adams, JLaw. So there is NO reason for Renner to make that much more than the actresses, other than he’s a man, and the standard in Hollywood is that he makes more than his female costar.
This. It’s annoying to talk about pay disparity as if hollywood actresses have that much power. They don’t.
And yeah. It would be stupid of them to negotiate to anything less. If they can get that they should not feel bad about negotiating at ALL. Sorry. The men will not stop out of some bs I’m doing it for my sisters reason. No matter how much equality they want. Women should do the same. So good on Charlize and Jlaw for negotiating what they’re worth. I hope Jlaw asks Sony for a sh-t ton more honestly.
80MIL???? REALLY??? wtf world am I living in?? I saw the first one whenever it was in theatres and fell asleep. WHAT 80MIL?? this is boggling my mind. Do we know how much Gwyneth got paid? Reading that does not make me want to support, watch or buy whatever marvel is selling w these outrageous salaries.
Don’t worry, RDJ is actually the only one making huge money off it. For the rest of them, it works the same way fashion works. Just being in the movie is payment enough (and they aren’t exactly lying – would anybody care about Chris Hemsworth if he wasn’t Thor?). Marvel is notorious for lowballing their actors (except RDJ).
That’s not true. ScarJo and Chris Hemsworth both have landed on the Forbes highest paid list in years when they have Marvel movies out. They’re not making RDJ money, but they’re doing really well. Chemsworth made something like $30 million from Thor 2. And the rumor is despite having one of the lowest salaries, Chris Evans is also one of the only ones getting a cut of merchandising from Marvel, because even if he’s wearing the mask, it’s still recognizably his face as Captain America all on the merchandise. They’re all do extremely well off Marvel. RDJ is doing really extremely the most well, but they’re all making bank.
And we’re still not talking about what they’re getting as residuals. Marvel movies are on TV *all the time*. They’re probably pulling seven figures a year on residuals alone.
They really are. I’m pretty sure he’s paid way more than Chris Evans for Civil War…his starring movie! I’m getting really tired of reading about RDJ’s wallet.
Downey’s been the only one being PAID with these movies. Ruffalo, Renner, Hemsworth, Evans and Johannson all earned in the $3-7 million range, in that order. Though, let me be clear. For the first Captain film, Evans earned $300,000+, (Hemsworth made closer to $200,000 for Thor). That bumped up to $2 mill for The Avengers vs the $50/76 million (when all’s said and done) that Downey made for it. After that, contract re-negotiations, specifically involving Chris Evans, Scarlet Johansson, and Chris Hemsworth, got pretty testy. I would hope that Evans negotiated a larger salary increase with each film AND a decent back-end deal. (The Captain films make more than Thor’s, and CA has a larger role in the MCU, second only to Iron Man). As is, I think he made $7 million for Ultron.
We also have to remember that Renner’s contract was penned (and has not changed) after he did “The Town”, while he was signing on to do Bourne and Mission Impossible. It was a different time, lol. So Renner brings in $5 mill (including the, you guessed it, back-end deal) and Ruffalo makes $3 mill because neither have starred in any standalone films. On the other hand, Scarlett Johannson earned $4-6 million for The Avengers. That apparently went up to $20 million for The Age of Ultron.
@ jammypants
He’s getting *way* more for Civil War. There was a report last year in one of the trades that RDJ extended his contract for several more movies and is getting like $40 million a pop, plus whatever bonuses he ends up with after they come out (and still none of this counts the residuals, which is where actors really make money). There was a specific note that if Civil War does better, financially, than CATWS, RDJ will get *another* bonus, on top of all his other bonuses. He’s going to make like $100 million off that movie alone. Chris Evans won’t make close to that and it’s his movie!
@ Amber
RDJ makes the most by leagues, but Chris Hemsworth ended up on the Forbes highest paid actor list the year Thor The Dark World came out. Whatever his up front salary is, he’s obviously getting back end money, too. Their salaries are one thing, the money they make off the back end is something else entirely and not nearly as well documented. And once again, we’re still not taking into consideration residuals, which can be *very* lucrative and is where actors make the real money, because they’ll still be earning off The Avengers long after they’ve stopped playing the character.
I think CB just swallowed the epic comment I left you @Algernon. It was a good one too *single tear*. I explained the formula for residuals, why I assume royalties and merchandising are part of these estimations to start with, (I’ve never seen any legit articles to cross reference all that anyhow), I had links (probably why it didn’t go through) and lots of other stuff. So, I’m not retyping all that and I’ll just say this. Forbes listed Hemsworth in 2014 for having earned $37 million off The Dark World, Rush and his base salary for In the Heart of the Sea, basically. A stand-alone Marvel film, a Ron Howard film that barely broke even, and another that hasn’t come out. That’s $2 million less than what they said Leonardo DiCaprio made in the time that The Wolf of Wall Street and The Great Gatsby came out. DiCaprio is listed now at $29 million, even though he’s only shot one movie since, and it will be his first release since December of 2013. I don’t think these lists are always accurate. (I KNOW their rankings for models are not.) But from June of 2014 to June of 2015 they say Hemsworth made $27 million. I can believe that. Because that would include his upfront and/or back-end salaries for Blackhat, Ultron, Vacation, and possibly his $10 million salary for The Huntsman (in post-production). If you lift out The Huntsman, that puts CH closer to Chris Evans, (who Forbes listed at $13 million) and would average out to around $5 million per film. (I don’t know what his salary could be or what the budget even is for “Sea” and why we’re still waiting when it started shooting in September 2013.) $5 million is also what he made for the first Snow White film. And Marvel wasn’t trying to hear that! (I think he’s making $5-7 mill when all is said and done, front and back.) I don’t think Hemsworth is making anything close to $20-30 million off Marvel in each go-round. We all know what Downey’s making. I have to think that if Hemsworth made more we would’ve heard about it, as it’s not the norm for Marvel at all.
@ Amber
I don’t think residuals/royalties *are* part of those highest earning lists, though., and I *know* merchandising is not. Merchandising and licensing deals are very secretive, largely to keep agents from being able to leverage for clients who may not be getting the same participation as co-stars, especially among big franchise casts.
I’m not ever clear on where exactly Forbes gets those numbers, because a lot of the earnings are not actually reported, their sourced rumors the trades print as news. No one actually knows the details of RDJ’s deal, for instance, but the rumor is his latest extension was around $40 million per movie + back end. i think they get some of it from tax filings, but the way actors get paid means that not everything they’re making for a movie ends up in the same year. That $27 million for Hemsworth can’t account for everyting he gets for Avengers 2 because he won’t see back-end payments until the quarter following its release. So like he’s just now getting the first part of that payout, so it won’t show up until Forbes reports on him next year.
My point on all this is, yes, RDJ makes way more than everyone else, but these Marvel contracts are far more lucrative than people think. Actors have money coming from multiple streams at once. Just knowing how it works with commercial actors, I assume the Marvel people are making out like bandits. RDJ most of all, but everyone’s doing pretty well for themselves.
I am also shocked. Besides, Iron Man is the most annoying ( and least believable) superhero I can think of, and RDJ is equally annoying.
I would rather they just write Pepper off the Iron Man movies altogether.
As for their pay salary disparity, I don’t think that should even be a conversation because I don’t see why they’d pay her as much as the titular character of the franchise.
On the other hand if it turns out that Scarlet is paid less that say, Jeremy Renner for the Avengers movies, then I would be outraged.
She’s paid way more than Jeremy Renner. It’s widely believed ScarJo has the best deal besides RDJ at Marvel. A lot of people think that’s why there’s no Black Widow movie, because if they gave her a solo film, she’d be due for some RDJ money.
I can’t stand her no matter what. She is one of the most overrated “actresses” ever. I remember her form the late ’90 when she was the it girl. She was bland and boring back then and is even more bland and boring now.
I know, she’s just insufferable.
Notice how she doesn’t threaten to quit, lol.
It’s funny — I remember being quite enchanted by her in the 90s and thinking she was a good actress. But recently, I watched Sliding Doors again and OH MY GOD, she was terrible in it. Her British accent — which, IIRC, everyone went crazy over, saying she was so “natural” — was ridiculously bad. But she was born into the biz, and her godfather is Stephen Spielberg, so it isn’t like she was going to do ANYTHING else.
How about hiring agents that work hard for you? RDJ obviously has a killer agent negotiating for him…maybe Goop needs to find an aggressive agent too who will set the bar high, no matter the gender of their client.
Having a good agent negotiating is certainly important but in many cases women stitt wouldn’t get the same money even if the exact same agent would use the exact same strategy.
Simply because the idea that it’s ok to offer women less is so ingrained in our society.
correct. RDJ’s agent Jim Toth is also ScarJo’s and she made about $15 on the avengers to his $80 million.
Not just Asian/African/Hispanic Americans but all Hispanics, all Asians, all Blacks etc.
Not everyone is American who works in Hollywood or the industry.
remember Rooney…Aboriginal actresses are not hired to play Aboriginal women…
I kind of get this, but only because if Robert had not successfully launched the Iron Man franchise, the Marvel franchise would have likely not made it off the launchpad or would have had a much harder time finding it’s audience. He was a gamble and he worked and he helped make everything that has followed possible: Captain America, Thor with everyone’s favorite dancing bear Hiddleston, the Avengers, Guardians, epic battles involving children’s toys…you get the picture.
I get it, but it would be nice if more women got the same sort of consideration. In time perhaps…
This is going to come off as.. probably mean. But I don’t understand why he deserves that amount of money. I saw the movie, and he’s not that great I feel like in every movie he does he’s just playing a version of himself. Tony Stark and RDJ are interchangeable one of them is just smarter. Also, he’s a HUGE gamble for marvel, why pay him that much? As for any of the other actors who have to actually act, Scarlett, The dude who plays Vision and Chris Evans, they make less than him combined. No one, no actors, deserves 80 million dollars. That’s ridiculous.
They never expected him to make that much. They didnt even want him in the movie, so he wasn’t locked into a 6 picture deal from the get go like the others. When the first Iron Man made ridiculous money he was able to renegotiate for a two picture deal of 50 million each plus back end I believe and now he renegotiated again so we’ll how much he makes for Civil War
RDJ was locked into a contract (Iron Man may have been a gamble, but it was always supposed to be a franchise starter) but Marvel screwed up with their contracts and the various “appearances” counted toward their picture deals. So RDJ burned through faster than expected.
I agree. I honestly don’t think that he is that great of an actor, much less as IronMan. I really can’t stand him in the movies.
Robert Downey is Iron Man. He makes so much because Iron Man makes a fortune for them. Gwynneth isn’t necessary, and she’s there because Robert Downey Jr. adores her.
Gwyneth: The way women are treated in Hollywood is horrible. Now go to my website to buy a shirt made for ten dollars and purchase it for $400.
First off, I think actors and entertainers and pro-athletes and models are all paid way too much, ridiculous amounts of money, when people are struggling with two or three jobs and still can’t pay the rent and put enough money aside to help their kids through college. To me, that is the most unfair thing of all, that inequality! Because whlie I admire good entertainers and athletes, it doesn’t mean their job is THAT much more important than a lot of “regular” jobs that people do who barely scrape by, and that’s not right. But it’s their industries that created that by giving out that much, so I don’t blame the stars or athletes for taking it.
As far as the inequality in the pay of male versus female, yes there is a huge discrepancy and that’s wrong. I agree with Paltrow that you look at your salary as what you are worth. If you do a good job and are a good asset, valuable to your employer, then they should reward that with a wage that shows they value that. So female actors definitely had a real bone to pick when male actors are paid more. And that’s not just true for actors, it happens everywhere, in every office. It’s wrong.
that argument that they’re paid a lot is always ridiculous because there are mulitnationals making crazy money off their names and images. I would rather the wealth be distributed in some way at least then Marvel keep all the money.
$80 million in salary!!!!! That’s obscene. And he’s playing the same character over and over.
I feel like because this is Gwyneth people are going to get bogged down in the specifics of “of course Iron Man makes more than Pepper Potts, he’s the star,” and miss the bigger context. Yes, Iron Man should make more, but how much more? should Hawkeye make more than Black Widow? If you look at male and female roles of about the same size, across all genres of film, there’s a disparity. That’s the larger point.
Yes I think if Scarlett had said this it would hold more weight, especially given all the talk about no Black Widow movie or the lack of merchandise for her versus the male characters. Its easy to look at Goop and think, well you weren’t the pivotal character in IM or Avengers so of course he’ll be paid more than you.
It’s unfortunately not just a Hollywood phenomenon, women are paid significantly less than their male counterparts in a huge number of areas and in sports, the male sports are given more coverage, sponsorship and therefore money even when the female teams are doing better than their male counterparts.
Except ScarJo’s making more money than everyone except RDJ, and she doesn’t even have her own movie. Chris Evans will churn out three Captain America movies and won’t make as much in all three as ScarJo will for one. She’s not really the one to be talking wage gaps, at least as far as Marvel salaries go. The merchandising problem and the lack of female-lead superhero movies is a separate issue, and I’m always a little annoyed that ScarJo doesn’t seem to care that Black Widow is cut out of most of the merchandising. She probably doesn’t care because it’s not likely she’d be getting money for it (and they only care if they’re getting paid), but you think she would at least advocate for it for all the little girls and young women who look up to her.
@Algernon But that’s because of her endorsement deals. She has to get those endorsement deals in order to make as much money as them. Meaning she has to go get extra work, while those guys can make bank for doing the job.
@ Korra
RDJ has endorsement deals, Chris Evans has endorsement deals, Chris Hemsworth has endorsement deals. She’s still making more than both Chrises (as far as Marvel goes). She was the second-highest paid person in Avengers 2, behind RDJ.
But generally, yes, it seems like actresses have to supplement their income more than actors do, and the highest paid actresses still make less on average than the highest paid actors.
Leaving race or gender out of it, I think it’s B.S. that someone makes 80 million dollars to be in 3 movies. Truly. I get it, there is a lot of work that goes into making the films, starring in the films, promoting the films, fine, I can respect that… but it’s a job. A job with a lot of perks and freedom and I just don’t understand why actors make that much money. It boggles my brain. But hey, maybe I’m just stupid and don’t understand the industry enough to know that they are worth 80 million.
Nobody really makes that much money. RDJ just simply got lucky because nobody expected Iron Man to be so successful
remember in his heyday Depp’s going rate was 10 mil per movie.
So, for the biggest stars, 10-20 of them per 7 bil people, you have 20 mil salaries.
It is the same as for sports stars. There is a big uniqueness factor.
Then you go to the next level and those actors are making about 0.5. million per movie.
The competition in sports and acting is fierce. So, they must be really worth it. Because if they weren’t they’d be easily replaced.
I agree but she’s not in the same league as RDJ!
So if you don’t think he’s worth $80 million or $50 million or whatever, what DO you think he should be paid? Someone mentioned $20 million. Well, where’s the justification for THAT? How do you measure what something is worth? You measure it by how much someone’s willing to pay for it. If someone’s willing to pay $80 million for an actor’s work, by definition, it’s worth that much to them.
The reality is, “worth” is pretty meaningless. A thing or a person is “worth” exactly what someone is willing to pay, no more and no less. And if you think that’s harsh in light of all the folks who are starving on minimum wage, I agree with you, but if their work was “worth” more, they would be paid more for it. If your work is worth more, you can find people willing to pay you more for it BECAUSE they think it’s worth it.
And if someone DOESN’T think you’re “worth” that much, they won’t pay it. They’ll find someone else to do the job.
The whole concept of work and worth is a mess. But it’s the only way of keeping score we’ve got. And I’m speaking from the POV of someone who never in her life saw or will see anything like the kind of money we’re talking about here–even the amounts the rest of the cast got for the first Avengers movie. (My acting ability is worth exactly zero.)
Well, it is kind of like setting a market price for anything else. You look at comparables.
How much other leading actors are paid for a big budget movies? About 20 mil? That is the current market price then,
I honestly don’t really mind him making 80 mil. He took negotiated for a percentage of the backhand well before Age of Ultron made 1.6 billion and he’s reaping the rewards for it. Hell, if the whole thing was from AoU (which is wasn’t), that would place him at a backend deal of 5%, which is a smaller percentage than everyone in American Hustle got.
Do I wish that the other actors would have gotten better deals that included backend profits? Of course. But I’m not going to knock Downey for leveraging his worth (Iron Man is essential in AoU due to no Ant Man existing yet and Civil War) and reaping the benefits when the gamble turns out to be wildly rewarding. Do I think someone is worth 80 million outright? No. Does my mind change when the product that they contributed to brings in 1.6 billion+? Of course.
He is Iron Man and knowing the story of Civil War, even with the MCU changes to it, he is as essential as Captain America.
Ha-ha. Do you think the other actors are thinking – because RDJ is being paid 80 mil the rest of them have to take a cut?
Let’s be honest, nobody can afford to pay 80 mil per leading actor when you have 4-5-6 leads like Avenger movies. No matter how much money the movie makes.
I 100% believe in equal pay for men and women but doesn’t it have to be for equal work?! I would be incredibly p*ssed off to discover my work colleagues were getting paid more for doing the same job because they were male. But if I’m working less hours should I be paid the same? No. That should stand for movies too.. lead actors should be paid more than supporting actors. If Bruce Paltrow was annoyed that a less established actor was getting paid the same as Gwyneth was that actor in a similar sized role (like Joseph Fiennes for example?) if so, I don’t have a huge issue. They were co leads. The problem is the same would absolutely not apply if the unestablished actor was female. The bigger issue too is that most lead roles are written for men by men meaning a lot of the time that actresses are tossed into lesser paid supporting roles. It is also a fact that actresses in a movie where there is only a female lead are paid less than if it was an only male lead which is more disturbing than getting paid less than your male co star who is the lead in a movie with vastly more screen time and work involved.
Late to the party (I’m thinking of changing my screen name to that!) again.
Since RDJ is mentioned here, I thought I’d put this here.
I’m originally from Western Massachusetts and was visiting my sister recently. She knows someone who was an extra on The Judge. That person said that 1). RDJ is gorgeous in real life – very buff and 2). He was the nicest guy imaginable. Always hung out and spoke with the extras. The only star who did.
So that makes me love RDJ so much! So it doesn’t bother me to hear that he’s making $80 mil. 🙂
In my opinion, all these big stars are overpaid when they are raking in income in the multiple millions for one movie. What does it matter who gets the most millions for a movie? They all live in mansions and drive fancy cars.
I don’t really understand how people can say RDJ isn’t ‘worth it’. The Marvel films he’s been in have made billions. At most he’s taken home about 5-6% of that.
Considering it was largely his portrayal of Iron Man that really gave Marvel a boost right out of the gate, and that he’s the biggest draw in all 5 films, it’s not even a ridiculous amount.
Why shouldn’t actors get a chunk of the profits when a film makes bank? The alternative is that Marvel keeps even more of the profits.
It’s obvious what she meant: nobody IN IRON MAN deserves to make anything close to what RDJ makes on it, BUT even so, the disparity between what he makes and what others (including biggest female role in the movie) is still huge.