Since 2013 and the release of “Man of Steel”, which kicked off the DC Extended Universe, superheroes and villains have swept onto the big screen. How much did these headliners get?
Initiated in 2013 thanks to Man of Steel, in which Henry Cavill slipped into Superman’s clothes in front of Zack Snyder’s camera, the DC Extended Universe (DCU for short) has since welcomed other super- DC heroes: Wonder-Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Black Adam, The Suicide Squad, Spin off centered on the character of Harley Quinn…
By expanding more simply to DC characters, and therefore not specifically part of this DCU, we will of course add Joker or The Batman.
Compared to the fate of the rival stable, Marvel, that of these DC superheroes or supervillains has sometimes been upset at the box office, with mixed results and / or far from initial expectations. But we also have to put things into perspective a little: in ten years, the DCU has still brought in, to date, a little more than 6 billion dollars. It’s not exactly a fiasco either.
Films that also rest, beyond the bursts of money shots thrown with great CGI reinforcements, on the shoulders of the talents carrying the films: Gal Gadot, Dwayne Johnson, Henry Cavill, Jason Momoa, Zachary Levi…
From there this idea of classification: what are the emoluments touched by the headliners of the DC team? For a Benedict Cumberbatch receiving $6.4 million for Doctor Strange 2 or a Chris Pratt receiving a check for $5 million for his performance in Avengers: Infinity War, how much does a Jared Leto, Margot Robbie or Gal Gadot get?
After the highest paid talents in the DC universe, make way for the lowest paid. Although this is a relative concept…
Warner Bros.
Barely 20 years old, Asher Angel is certainly not quite at the height of his career. Far from it. Making himself known by interpreting the role of Jonah Beck in the Disney Channel sitcom Andi, he landed in 2019, at age 15, the coveted role of Billy Batson in the blockbuster Shazam; a teenager finding himself propelled into the body of an indestructible superhero.
A minor at the time of this role, his salary was $85,000. With a small bonus clause in the contract: if the film managed to reach the threshold of $400 million at the box office, it was entitled to an additional check for $25,000. Given the 365.9 million greenbacks collected, the bonus passed under his nose.
However, he will be able to console himself in the future. According to website information TMZ Regarding the actor’s contract, not only will his base salary go up, which makes sense, but also the bonuses. We thus learn that for Shazam! The rage of the gods, he received $200,000 as well as a bonus of $35,000, always on the express condition that the film collects at least $400 million at the Box office. There’s just !
The counter even goes up to Shazam 5 (that is to say if one is ambitious and far-sighted in Hollywood), with a salary of $1.6 million and a bonus of $150,000. We imagine that Asher Angel is already looking forward to it.
Warner Bros.
Amber Heard played Princess Mera in Aquaman. According to information from Newsweek, she received a salary of $ 2 million for this role. Resuming his role in the sequel, Aquaman and the lost kingdom, he has seen himself planed, since the turmoil caused by the resounding trial against Johnny Depp. We even now know that Warner actually considered replacing her on the film…
“I fought to stay in the film, and they kept me in it. I just don’t know what’s left of me in the final cut” commented the actress, quoted by Newsweek. According Kathryn Arnolda producer specializing in the Entertainment business (and who testified at the Depp / Heard trial), this situation most certainly means that Amber Heard has remained at the same salary level as the previous film, where she should logically have received at least the double considering the colossal receipts ofAquaman. As an indication, Jason Momoa saw his salary go from $3 million for the first film, to $15 million for Aquaman 2. It hurts a lot…
Warner Bros.
Admittedly, Amy Adams is not necessarily the name that immediately comes to mind when discussing the films of the DC stable. However, the actress embodied a solid Lois Lane in Man of Steel, in addition to not being an unknown actress. She already lined up her list of no less than three Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor. And even a 4th the year of the release of man of steelfor his role in The Master.
On the strength of this, she thus touched, according to vulnerability, a seven-figure salary for the Zack Snyder film. Significantly more than Henry Cavill, whose salary was close to a million dollars. She reprized her role twice, in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016, and Justice League in 2017. The year she just hit the jackpot, with $11.5 million, making her one of the Hollywood’s highest paid actresses.
The salaries received for these two films have not been made official. With no other films on his 2017 schedule and having also shot two cut-budget films in 2016, Nocturnal Animals and First Contact, it’s not hard to imagine that this $11.5 million came in very much of the emoluments received on the DC film released that year.
Warner Bros.
Third film to be released under the banner of the DCU, Suicide Squad lined up a nice cast, in the middle of which we found in particular Will Smith, Margot Robbie, and therefore Jared Leto, who embodied a new variation of the Joker. The communication around the film (not to say the hype…) had moreover largely been fueled precisely by the devotion and the involvement of the actor for the role.
An (over)investment that was well worth $7 million in the eyes of Warner. The problem is that, by the actor’s own admission, an overwhelming part of his scenes fell by the wayside… So much so that there are only 8 minutes left of his performance in the released edit. in theaters… Which therefore makes us nearly a million dollars per minute on screen. Royal. But it’s still expensive to appear … While Margot Robbie has returned to the role of Harley Quinn in her spin off and the reboot of Suicide Squad, Jared Leto has remained on the sidelines.
Warner Bros.
The salary of the actress touched on Suicide Squad has never been made public. However, we know that on Birds of Prey, the star cashed a check for $ 10 million, according to information confirmed by Forbes. More than generous emoluments, also justified by the fact that Robbie was also executive producer of the film.
Unfortunately, we will not know more about the reboot The Suicide Squad, released the following year. But that does not preclude making estimates. According variety, the actress received a royal treatment of $ 12.5 million to embody Barbie. We can therefore estimate, staying within the radius of these big-budget films, that she must have received a minimum salary of $10 million on The Suicide Squad.
Warner Bros.
In 2017, rumors had hinted that Henry Cavill had received an astronomical sum of $ 14 million for his debut in the DCU with man of steel, comparing these emoluments with the yardstick of what Gal Gadot had supposedly received on her Wonder Woman, namely $ 300,000. It is false in both cases. The two were reportedly paid roughly the same amount for their DCU debut, just under $1 million.
It’s still a straw, and a very small one, compared to what the film brought to Warner at the global box office: $822.8 million. On Wonder Woman 1984, the shooting was fortunately corrected: the actress received a check for $ 10 million, also justified by the fact that she is also a producer on the film.