Dwayne Johnson will for his new movie”redreceived a $50 million fee. This makes The Rock the highest paid actor in the world — even Robert Downey Jr. couldn’t pocket as much money for his appearances as Iron Man in “The Avengers” and Co. Well-connected Hollywood insiders Matt Belloni and Jonathan Handel report this in their newsletter .
The top honors previously went to Will Smith for his Oscar-winning performance in the tennis drama King Richard and to Robert Downey Jr. for Captain America: Civil War. According to reports from the major US trade magazines, both were said to have received $40 million each. And also Dwayne Johnson himself more than doubled his past fees: He reportedly received $23.5 million for both “Jumanji: The Next Level” and “Red Notice”.
At the same time, you should put a small “but” after the fee statement. Because the comparison with Robert Downey Jr. and with classic Hollywood films lags behind a bit.
Why does The Rock make so much money?
“Red One” was filmed for Amazon Prime Video streaming service and With streaming films, numerous bonus payments are canceled that otherwise supplement the relatively low fees for cinema films. These include profit sharing, bonuses tied to certain box office records – and the so-called residuals, which are the focus of Hollywood’s current strikes.
To compensate for this, the streaming services pay the stars higher fees up front. That means in plain language: While Dwayne Johnson apparently received a higher fee for “Red One” than even Robert Downey Jr. in his Marvel weddings, that doesn’t mean he ends up making more money from it.
For example, Robert Downey Jr. a fee of “only” 20 million dollars for his appearance in “Avengers: Endgame”. Thanks to profit sharing and other bonuses, he ended up making $75 million from the Marvel smash hit, which grossed nearly $2.8 billion at the worldwide box office.
This is “Red One”
“Red One” sounds a bit like the aforementioned “Red Notice” or “Black Adam”, but it is neither a spy thriller nor a superhero movie, but is described as a Christmas action movie. Directed by “Jumanji” director Jake Kasdan, this family adventure also stars Marvel star Chris Evans, Oscar winner JK Simmons and many more.
“Red One” is likely to launch on Amazon Prime Video in December 2023 and should be the prelude to a major franchise, from which Amazon also expects plenty of merchandise opportunities in its core online mail-order business. This is probably one of the reasons why Amazon paid such a hefty sum for Dwayne Johnson’s performance…