Variety had a really interesting story this week about movie star paychecks and which movie stars are really raking in the really massive paychecks. Buried within the article, Variety noted that Robert Pattinson is on the lowest end of “movie star paychecks,” having only gotten $3 million for The Batman. Which is very low, especially considering the upfront salaries of so many men for such crappy films. While Variety doesn’t say this, I would assume that Pattinson only (“only”) got $3 million upfront and then he has a very generous backend deal. That is truly the only explanation I have for why his quote is so low.
A $20 million-per-picture paycheck has been industry standard for top talent since 1996, when Jim Carrey stunned Hollywood by earning that sum for his dark comedy “The Cable Guy.” That number still stands for headliners of movies made for theatrical release, including upcoming projects starring Sandra Bullock (Paramount’s “The Lost City of D”), Brad Pitt (Sony’s “Bullet Train”) and Chris Hemsworth (Disney’s “Thor: Love and Thunder”). And it’s a sliding scale. Chris Pine will earn close to $11.5 million for the Paramount franchise hopeful “Dungeons and Dragons,” and Robert Pattinson picked up $3 million for his turn in “The Batman,” a grittier take on the comic book icon.
Five years ago, many of these paydays would be the top of the heap. Now they’re dwarfed by the riches offered by Netflix, Amazon and other streamers. Daniel Craig, for instance, is walking off with north of $100 million thanks to the eye-popping sale of two sequels to Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out.” His windfall can be attributed to the fact that Netflix compensates movie stars for the projected back-end box office participation they would reap if their movies were released exclusively in theaters. Add to that salary bumps Craig would’ve received for second and third films in the murder mystery series, and the outgoing James Bond is sitting on a nine-figure check.
The fact that Daniel Craig has scored $100 million for two Knives Out sequels… my God. He also had a pretty crazy deal with the James Bond franchise, and tons of side-deals for “in character” cross-promotion. As for Pattinson… he’s playing a comic-book character with a built-in audience, and Rob was also part of a massively successful franchise before. I seriously don’t know why his quote is so low unless he was specifically aiming for a backend payday.
I genuinely think this looks good, still.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, ‘The Batman’.
Probably because it’s a character with a built in audience? They could have put many people in this role and there would still be devoted fans that come to see it. Also Rob’s name is very well known, but I don’t think he has a fantastic box office history. Twilight did well (obviously), but that was nearly a decade ago. He’s been in things since then that are critically acclaimed, but not really huge money makers. It makes sense that the studio would be a little more hesitant to give him a ton upfront. Hopefully his rep leveraged that into a really good back end deal.
Personally, I think he’ll be interesting as Batman and am a lot more likely to watch the movie now. I never watch the Marvel/DC stuff (it’s so repetitive)
Robert Pattinson doesn’t command these big salaries (maybe in Twilight era) and usually the upfront salary on a first movie of a superhero saga is not that big, they get bigger once the films become proven successes
Gal Gadot and Henry Cavill didn’t get huge upfront salaries at first either, but their second ones were way bigger
And neither did the actors in the MCU .RDJ made $500k for the first Iron Man,Scarlett got $400k and CH got $150k for Thor but his money has gone way up and he like Scarlett got $20m + 8% for there latest MCU films
I hope all his money isn’t going to come from the backend given what we’re seeing with these theater & platform releases. Warner Bros has said they’re going back to exclusively theatrical releases in 2022, so here’s hoping Rob won’t get screwed like Scarjo did w/Black Widow. Not sure COVID will be done with us by the March 2022 release date but we’ll see.
He’s not an A-list movie star. 3 million sounds about right.
Though I’m looking forward to this movie I wish that the movie was a bit lighter. I get that Batman/Bruce Wayne has issues and is super brooding but COME ON. Even if it went back to the Mike Keaton era. Yes even that was dark but he it wasn’t so heavy handed.
I totally agree, he wasn’t, he was charming! I’m not sure why every Batman since has lacked charm, but I miss it.
3 million seems on the low end for him so i’m assuming he has a pretty lucrative backend deal – but it also doesn’t seem THAT low. Like it surprised me but had he gotten “only” 5 million I would not have been surprised. Twilight was massively successful but that was based on the success of the books IMO, you could have put a lot of people in that movie and it would have done well. here’s where I admit I only saw the first twilight bc it was so bad I just couldn’t bring myself to watch another (and I did read all the books.)
also 100 million for two knives out sequels seems INSANE to me. What does Daniel Craig do with all his money!?!?!
I feel like if he’s banking on getting a lot of money off a backend deal, he’s gonna have a bad time.
Obviously any Batman movie will have a built in audience, but I feel like this is one of those ones that might have a big opening weekend and then take a nose dive in numbers the following week.
I am so psyched! I love the dark/gothicness of this. It’s not cheesy or trendy it’s brooding, mysterious, tormenting to the senses perhaps? 😀
Rob P. as Batman does not interest me. Colin Farrell as the Penguin does.
I’m not planning to go back to the movie theaters ever again. Not even for Keanu.
Not even for Matrix 4 or John Wick 4.
I hate the experience of the movie multi plex, which is all we have in my area.
Too loud, too many bad mannered people, constantly up/down, talking thru the movie, etc.
I have a comfy set up at home, Amazon, Netflix, etc. I will pay to stream. No longer going to pay the cost of in theater experience.
I haven’t been to the movies since March 2020 and I am a big movie goer. I would go 4 to 5 times per month pre-pandemic.
My guess for his “low” salary is a mix of things. First, it’s the beginning of a new franchise / trilogy with new actors, new director, etc. So they’ll see how things play out for them.
Secondly, Batman has not being very profitable in the last movie incarnations. The Batfleck didn’t make enough money and critic was pretty harsh on BvS, Suicide Squad, and Justice League, so then again, they’re rebuilding the Batman brand after being hit hard by the Snyderverse.
Third, pandemic will still be pretty raging by March 2022 but I’m eager to make The Batman the movie that will get me again to a theater.
I’m sure Pattinson will do better in the payment department in the next movie. I’m hoping this to be a success.