Gal Gadot Probably Didn’t Make 46 Times Less Than Henry Cavill For “Wonder Woman”
Making the rounds today is a story that makes it sound like Wonder Woman’s greatest foe, besides metal poisoning of the nipples from wearing that corset top, is the gender wage gap! Elle posted a story yesterday claiming that Gal Gadot got paid $300,000 for her first Wonder Woman movie while Henry Cavill got $14 million for his first Superman movie, Man of Steel. Gal wasn’t really known before getting Wonder Woman and the same goes for Henry and Superman, so that bit of information made people schedule a code 10 emergency appointment at Lens Crafters since they thought their eyes were fucked up. The gender wage gap is real, but it turns out that this story is not.
Elle got their info from Forbes, who said that Henry made $14 million for Man of Steel, and Variety, who said that Gal signed a three-picture deal (for Batman v. Superman, Wonder Woman and Justice League) and made $300,000 per movie. A source tells Vanity Fair that there’s no way Henry would get $14 million for just one movie because the studio would never pay that since they don’t have to. They say that when an actor is first cast in a big-budget franchise, they get an entry level fee and they really make that money from box office bonuses. Robert Downey Jr. , Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth were all paid less than $500,000 for their first superhero movies but have since made bigger mountains of cash from bonuses and salary bumps. The source doesn’t know where Forbes pulled that $14 million number out of, but they say that Gal will probably end up making as much as Henry.
“Entry-level actors in franchise films are paid an initial rate. As a franchise takes off, they stand to make more money. If you do an apples to apples comparison, she was paid at least as much as he was.”
TMZ says that Gal’s base pay was $900,000 for three movies, but since Wonder Woman has made almost $575 million worldwide in less than three weeks, her WW coin purse will eventually get stuffed with millions in bonuses. Wonder Woman is probably going to get a sequel too and since Gal hasn’t officially signed on for it, she’ll definitely try to get more money before she puts her signature on that contract.
For me, there’s two takeaways here:
- However much money Gal Gadot makes from playing Wonder Woman, she’ll still make a ton more than Lynda Carter made for playing Wonder Woman. That is blasphemy at its worst.
- However much money Ben Affleck got paid for playing Batman, it was too much since a broody wooden post with luscious moobs could’ve done a better job for a lot less cash.
Pic: Warner Bros.