Agent Ethan Hunt trusts himself. tom cruise is taking a decrease upfront payment to star within the subsequent two “Mission: Unattainable” motion pictures, which sources say brings in a meager wage within the $12 million to $14 million vary, however he controls a big share. of the primary greenback gross of the flicks. . Which means Cruise will get field workplace bonuses even earlier than the studio breaks even. Within the case of “High Gun: Maverick”, which continues to fly excessive with virtually $1.2 billion on the worldwide field workplace, sources estimate that Cruise will make $100 million or extra from ticket gross sales, his wage and his eventual discount in residence leisure leases and streaming income.
“I’d by no means wager in opposition to Tom Cruise,” says one studio exec, noting that Cruise is superhuman on the subject of touring the world selling his motion pictures (though he does not do print interviews). “Most actors aren’t price what you pay them, however Cruise and possibly Dwayne Johnson justify their salaries.”
Nonetheless, Cruise’s deal is exclusive. Most A-listers nonetheless get massive paydays, with many getting a reduce of the income, however solely stepping into the riches pool after a film is within the black. For many years, the world’s greatest actors commanded $20 million. That quantity dates again to Jim Carrey’s fee for 1996’s “The Cable Man,” and it was a quantity that appeared resistant to inflationary stress.
Cruise’s pact is a holdover from a time when stars, not superheroes, have been the explanation audiences flocked to film theaters to see a brand new launch. However issues have modified since Marvel took the field workplace hostage within the early years, placing on an interchangeable assortment of Chrises in spandex and masks. The issue is that though these actors are surefire attracts at any time when the Avengers reunite, they can not all the time draw a crowd when making an attempt to construct on their success in different genres.
That does not imply film stars want a bailout. The streaming wars have been superb in your outcomes. Apple pays Leonardo DiCaprio $30 million to re-team with Martin Scorsese within the historic drama “Killers of the Flower Moon,” in addition to pay Brad Pitt $30 million to get behind the wheel of a Components One drama. One that does not actually have a “High Gun” title. : Maverick” Joseph Kosinski and $35 million to Will Smith for showing within the fugitive slave thriller “Emancipation.” To not be outdone, Netflix pays $20 million for Chris Hemsworth and $10 million for Millie Bobby Brown to reprise their roles within the upcoming “Extraction” and “Enola Holmes” sequels.
Studio executives admit that funds from Netflix, Apple and the like have prompted some gamers to extend their inventory costs. Johnson, for instance, requested for and obtained $22.5 million to play the lead in “Black Adam,” a DC superhero film. As well as, he’ll obtain hundreds of thousands extra for producing the movie and earn a further payment to advertise the movie on his social media channels.
However these flashy paydays include caveats. Apple has included clauses in some contracts that make bonuses contingent on motion pictures being on time and on funds. And all of the streamers are primarily paying for the actors’ backends. That eliminates the chance of their motion pictures crashing on the field workplace, which might theoretically deprive them of all these bonuses. Nonetheless, it additionally places a cap in your potential earnings if, for instance, “Killers of the Flower Moon” is a worldwide phenomenon.
In success, stars reap rewards in different methods. Jason Momoa had the choice of showing in an “Aquaman” sequel as a part of his preliminary contract, however after the primary movie surpassed $1 billion, he renegotiated his pact to just about double his wage to wield the trident as soon as extra. . Now, Momoa will get $15 million for his second journey to Atlantis. The identical goes for joaquin phoenix. When he first performed Gotham Metropolis’s most notorious villain in 2019’s “Joker,” Phoenix earned $4.5 million. The movie grossed over a billion {dollars} and earned the actor an Oscar. If Warner Bros. goes to carry again Phoenix in clown make-up, it’ll value the studio $20 million.
The nice occasions could not final. There is a nagging sense that, because the nation braces for recession and media corporations see their share costs plummet, stars may begin to really feel the stress. After years of free spending, Netflix has signaled to traders that it’s critical about preserving its working margins between 19% and 20%. That has made the streamer far more selective on the subject of writing big checks for attention-grabbing tasks. On the similar time, corporations like Warner Bros. Discovery are grappling with big debt hundreds and have pledged to chop prices. To be truthful, Apple, with a market capitalization of $2.4 trillion, appears unlikely to be pressured to tighten its belt, however in some unspecified time in the future all this economizing can have a trickle-down impact when it comes to star salaries.
For actors, it is not all the time concerning the cash. Take the forged of “Oppenheimer,” a historic drama about J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of many driving forces behind the creation of the atomic bomb. The $100 million manufacturing is a difficult enterprise proposition given its subject material, however Common is taking the gamble as a result of it comes from the thoughts of Christopher Nolan. And whereas “Oppenheimer” has character actor Cillian Murphy within the title position, the ensemble consists of A-list characters like Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in supporting roles. Any one in all these gamers may fetch between $10 million and $20 million on the open market, however for the privilege of working with Nolan, they’re giving the studio a deep low cost, incomes $4 million every. Nonetheless, like Cruise, all of them have back-end involvement constructed into their offers. So if “Oppenheimer” beats the percentages because the uncommon critical drama to realize blockbuster standing, they may profit handsomely.
Matt Donnelly and Rebecca Rubin contributed to this report.