SEX & MONEY IN HOLLYWOOD
Breaking the Cash Ceiling
Long ago in a Hollywood far, far away, when people talked about what an actor or actress made the conversation was about the films they starred in, not the money they earned. Everyone just assumed they were rich; they were movie stars after all. They led glamorous lives, drove fancy cars and lived behind high walls in opulent homes. During the Golden Age, which began in the silent era and ended in the early 60s, the studios were king and regardless of their popularity, actors and actresses were their pawns. Contract players, as they were called, were salaried employees who made the pictures the studio chiefs told them to for the money they were willing to pay them.
All that changed in 1948 when the Supreme Court ruled that the studios were monopolies and as such, could no longer own the theatres in which their movies played. Without a guaranteed outlet for their films, the economics of the industry changed and the studios began to release talent from their contracts, ushering in the age of actors as free agents. It’s only fitting that the bounty a movie star could earn as a free agent was first realized in 1962 when Marlon Brando became the first actor to earn $1 million for his role as Fletcher Christian in Mutiny on the Bounty. Nine months later, Elizabeth Taylor became the first actress to earn $1 million for her turn as Cleopatra.
Considered a staggering sum at the time, their $1 million paychecks translate to $8.5 million in today’s dollars, a paltry figure compared to current Hollywood salaries. Salaries in 1996 became what the Urban Dictionary would call “stupid money” when, in a move the Los Angeles Times called “historic and troubling”, Jim Carey was paid $20 million for The Cable Guy. On top of his salary, Mr. Carey received 15% of the films’ $102 million worldwide gross, bringing his take to over $35 million. Carey’s deal opened the door for other A-list actors to cut similar deals, including Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, and Adam Sandler.
While the boys were raking in the cash, it wasn’t until 2000 that Julia Roberts, who had five $100 million movies under her belt, overcame Hollywood’s long-established double standard to become the first actress to command $20 million for her Oscar-winning performance as Erin Brockovich. With the cash ceiling broken, many thought that Ms. Roberts’ historic deal would have rectified the industry’s gender pay-gap, especially since it was often the same agents that were negotiating the deals for both the men and the women. Think again, they don’t call Hollywood a boys’ club for nothing.
Fast forward to November 2014 when a group called the Guardians of Peace hacked Sony Pictures and obtained 100 terabytes of data. Among the thousands of documents and emails that were released to the press in what was believed to be North Korea’s retaliation for the studio’s release of The Interview, a comedy about two journalists charged with assassinating Kim Jong Un, were deal points and employee salaries.
The data dump included the back-end deals for the stars of American Hustle. Turns out one of the industry’s most bankable stars, Academy Award-winner Jennifer Lawrence, was earning only 7% of the back-end while her male co-stars, Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale and Jeremey Renner, were getting 9%. In an essay entitled, Why Do I Earn Less Than My Male Co-Stars?, which she penned for Lena Dunham’s newsletter Lenny, Lawrence wrote, “When the Sony hack happened, I learned how much less I was making than the lucky people with dicks.” The hacks also revealed that out of the seventeen Sony Pictures’ employees that were earning more than $1 million a year, only one was a woman, and that eighty-five out of the top one hundred earners at the studio were men.
Perhaps one of the most egregious examples of the gender salary gap involved Michelle Williams who was reportedly paid less than $1,000 for reshoots on Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World when Christopher Plummer assumed the lead role from Kevin Spacey following allegations of sexual misconduct. Ms. William’s co-star, Mark Wahlberg was paid $1.5 million for the same work. Living up to his good guy image, Mr. Wahlberg later donated his reshoot earnings to the Time’s Up Defense Fund.
When accepting her Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2015 for her role in Boyhood, Patricia Arquette brought the audience to its feet with an impassioned plea for wage equality. One would have hoped that such high-visibility calls for gender-gap equity would have made a difference, but looking at the salaries of last year’s top-earning stars, it’s abundantly clear that it hasn’t. Led by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who made $89.4 million, seven of the top earners were men. The highest paid actress, Scarlett Johansson, made $56 million (37% less than Mr. Johnson) and comes in at number eight.
Here’s the entire list according to Forbes:
Highest Paid Actors
Dwayne Johnson $89.4 million
Chris Hemsworth $76.4 million
Robert Downey, Jr. $66 million
Akshay Kumar $65 million
Jackie Chan $58 million
Bradley Cooper $57 million (tie)
Adam Sandler $57 million (tie)
Chris Evans $43.5 million
Paul Rudd $41 million
Will Smith $35 million
Highest Paid Actresses
Scarlett Johansson $56 million
Sofia Vergara $43 million
Reese Witherspoon $35 Million
Nicole Kidman $34 Million
Jennifer Anniston $28 Million
Kaley Cuoco $25 Million
Elisabeth Moss $24 Million
Margot Robbie $23.5 Million
Charlize Theron $23 Million
Ellen Pompeo $22 Million
On average, the top earning male stars made 47% more than their female counterparts. Why is there such disparity? After the Sony hacks revealed the inequity of her deal, Jennifer Lawrence wrote, “I didn’t get mad at Sony, I got mad at myself. I failed as a negotiator because I gave up early. There was an element of wanting to be liked that influenced my decision to close the deal without a real fight. I didn’t want to seem ‘difficult’ or ‘spoiled.’ That seemed like a fine idea, until I saw the payroll on the Internet and realized every man I was working with definitely didn’t worry about being ‘difficult’ or ‘spoiled.’”
It wasn’t always this way. Writing for KQED.org, Rae Alexander points out that in 1937 Mae West, who made $323,333, was one of the top earners, and that in 1932, the three top earners were women. “It would seem that opportunities to get into the same earnings ballpark as men were more viable for actresses 80 years ago than they are today.”
It appears that Hollywood is content to keep women in the mid-tier salary range. But as the movie business evolves into what could be the post-theatrical exhibition era due to COVID and the ascent of the streaming networks, things may change. Aside from the gender gap, a few things become apparent when thumbing through Forbes roundup of 2020’s highest paid actors. The first is that while the stars make a fortune, an increasing share of their earnings has nothing to do with acting and everything to do with celebrity endorsements and licensing deals. The second is that there’s a new sheriff in town and her name is Netflix. According to Forbes, more than 25% of the ten top-earning actors’ salaries were paid by the streaming giant. With numbers like that and guaranteed distribution, we may be looking at a new Golden Age of movies. This time around, let’s hope its golden for everyone.
