In a conveniently timed news story, we’ve learned Dwayne Johnson is set to break a Hollywood record for the highest-paid actor.
Per Puck News, Johnson will earn $50 million for Red One, an upcoming holiday action film. His lead role as Callum Drift, the Commander of the E.L.F., gives Johnson the highest salary of his career and the biggest payday for an actor for a single part.
At the time of writing, the previous record for the highest-paid actor for a single role belongs to Robert Downey Jr. for Captain America: Civil War and Will Smith for King Richard, who brought in a total of $40 million up front.
As SAG-AFTRA heads into its first full week of a strike, the timing of this story seems set to undermine the overwhelming issues presented by the actors to the studios. While many outside the industry think everyone is making Dwayne Johnson salaries (or anything even close), the real stats lean towards 87% of SAG/AFTRA union members making less than $26,000 a year, making them unable to qualify for health insurance.
Johnson’s astronomical payday shows the importance studios feel certain movie stars bring, making them willing to pay these prices to keep actors on streamers. In Screen Rant’s reporting, they claim, “the industry-standard salary for Hollywood’s biggest stars was $20 million plus a percentage of the movie’s box office gross” not that long ago. Backend deals, which give actors pay from ticket sales, are still profitable. Tom Cruise got a reported cut of more than $100m on Top Gun: Maverick.
Now that the usual box office draw that is Dwayne Johnson won’t see a backend deal for Red One, he is getting what he believes is his worth as a movie star all upfront.
Red One is being directed by Jake Kasdan from a script by Chris Morgan (Hobbs & Shaw) and sees Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, and J.K. Simmons joined in the cast by Kiernan Shipka, Lucy Liu, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Nick Kroll, Kristofer Hivju, Wesley Kimmel and Bonnie Hunt.
Specific plot details for the film are being kept under wraps but has been described by Amazon Studios as “a globe-trotting, four-quadrant action-adventure comedy, imagining a whole new universe to explore within the holiday genre.”
Amazon will unwrap Red One during the 2023 holiday season.
