14 DAY TRIAL // The “Iron Man” movies, including his Iron Man cameos in the other installments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, have turned Robert Downey Jr. into the highest-paid actor in Hollywood. That’s not even an exaggeration: this year, Forbes put his current MCU salary at $80 million ($70.4 million).
According to a new report from Bleeding Cool, RDJ is about to get even more insanely rich than before, because Marvel is literally throwing cash at him for the final 2 “Avengers” films, which are basically 1 story told in 2 parts: “Avengers: Infinity War Part One” and “Avengers: Infinity War Part Two.”
RDJ’s salary is out of this world
If RDJ has been, for years now, the highest paid actor in Hollywood, he’s about to set a whole new, extraordinary record, because his reported paycheck for these 2 films equals the budget of a big-budget production. No joke.
As per the report, the “Infinity War” will have a total budget of $1 billion (€880 million), including the huge marketing costs, but excluding sponsorships and tax incentives. These can shave off many millions (in the hundreds, actually) off the final budget.
The writer, directors and principal cast’s cut of that budget is of $400 million (€352.1 million), half of which will be paid to RDJ. In other words, he stands to make $100 million (€88 million) for each “Infinity War” movie, which means he will have become the first actor to receive this kind of astronomical salary.
And here’s the funniest part and a solid clue of how big the MCU movies have become: “There’s no script yet. Not even a plot agreed,” Bleeding Cool reports.
No man is worth the kind of money RDJ is worth
This report comes hot on the heels of a comment from Gwyneth Paltrow, the Oscar-winning co-star of RDJ in the “Iron Man” movies (though not in the “Avengers”), on the pay gap between them.
Speaking of sexism in the film industry, which translates into a huge pay gap between male and female co-stars, even in those cases when they’re billed equally (she and RDJ aren’t, for the record), she said that she made so little money off “Iron Man” compared to RDJ that people “would be surprised.”
She called the situation frustrating and infuriating, because one’s salary is one’s estimation of one’s worth. Naturally, if a woman is paid less than her male co-star, she gets the message that she’s worth less, so her work must be of inferior quality.
Paltrow didn’t offer actual figures for how much she or RDJ were paid for the 3 “Iron Man” movies they made together, but she did say this: “Look, nobody is worth the money that Robert Downey Jr. is worth.”