Now, before we begin there’s gonna be some obvious arguments to make here about not being able to gauge how well the film would’ve performed at the box office prior (due to a lack of female-driven superhero flick would you even bloody believe) and the fact that Gal Gadot wasn’t a proven lead draw before taking on the film (even though she’s been in four ‘Fast & Furious‘ films *and* ‘Batman vs Superman‘ which drew in bonkers money even though it sucked tremendously).
But even still, this is not a huge amount of cash, all things considered.
Since its release, ‘Wonder Woman‘ has done gangbusters both in the critical stakes, and (arguably) more importantly in the financial ones as well.
The film has made money hand over fist, with current box office takings sitting at around US$572.2million after just three weeks in theatres. This, from a film that had a decently hefty budget of US$149million.
The point is, there’s a heck of a lot of cash being flung around the flick. It’s just that not a lot of it got flung Gadot’s way, as it turns out.
Despite the solid-sized budget, and despite the massive financial windfall it’s proving to be, Gadot’s pay cheque to fill the lead role in the blockbuster was ah… comparatively quite small.
Gadot received a base salary of just US$300,000 for her role in the DC comics flick. Reportedly, that’s the same amount she was paid for a supporting role in ‘Batman vs Superman,’ and it’s the same amount she’ll be taking home for a role in the upcoming ensemble film ‘Justice League.’
Now, it’s entirely likely that she’ll be scoring a solid bonus, as most Hollywood contracts stipulate is payable once a film passes a certain box office level. But for a film with such a large budget and prominence it feels incredibly low.
There is precedent for men in the same roles to be paid the same amount; Chris Evans took home a reported US$300k for his first tilt at being ‘Captain America.’ ‘Course his take-home fist-o’-change has increased significantly in the ensuing series.
But then again the at-the-time unproven Henry Cavill is said to have pocketed a whopping US$14million for his first appearance as Superman in 2013’s ‘Man of Steel.’
No matter which way you look at it, that’s a fair gap. A wage gap, to borrow a phrase from *somewhere*.
One thing is for damned sure now though, whenever the inevitable ‘Wonder Woman‘ sequel is announced, Gadot’s gonna be feeling way more fibre of Warner Bros. fabric.
Source: Decider.
