Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most lucrative movie: “We went all the way to the bank”
These days, it’s rare for an actor to make $20million per picture, because so many elements of the movie business have contracted since the 1990s-2000s, when Hollywood’s biggest stars made money hand over fist. Back then, after all, $20m was merely Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s warm-up for his real paydays.
When Schwarzenegger agreed to spray paint himself silver and squeeze his enormous frame into an elaborate mechanical costume as Mr Freeze in 1997’s Batman & Robin, he was reportedly paid $30m for the privilege. Then, between 1999 and 2002, he collected $25m for End of Days, The Sixth Day, and Collateral Damage, in addition to an eye-watering $35m for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
According to Schwarzenegger, though, none of these films saw him pocket his biggest paycheque. Instead, his most lucrative movie was one he wasn’t even paid for up front; as in, he made zero dollars until the film hit cinemas and began raking in money at the box office. In truth, the project was a calculated gamble for Schwarzenegger, and he found two kindred spirits also willing to roll the dice.
When Schwarzenegger spoke to his son, The White Lotus star Patrick, during Variety‘s ‘Actors on Actors’ series, he revealed that Hollywood’s reaction in the late ’80s to his desire to do comedy was, shall we say, unfavourable.
He chuckled, “They said, ‘Are you crazy? The more people this guy kills on-screen, the more money we make. Why would we change that?”
However, the decision-makers swiftly changed their tune when Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman and Taxi star Danny DeVito came along. Reitman wanted to pair Schwarzenegger and DeVito on-screen in a movie with one of the most cast-iron, solid-gold comedy premises imaginable. Schwarzenegger is a tall, bronzed, musclebound leviathan, while DeVito is five feet nothing, portly, and balding. But what if they were twins separated at birth? Hilarity would ensue, of course.
Despite this heavyweight triumvirate wanting to make the movie, Universal Pictures was still reticent to cast Schwarzenegger in a comedy. So, he, DeVito, and Reitman made them an offer they couldn’t refuse; they would defer their usual salaries completely, in exchange for part-ownership of the film and 40% of the backend. Universal accepted this deal as it enabled the studio to make the picture for only $16.5m.
When it was all said and done, Schwarzenegger grinned, “It happened to be the best deal we’ve ever made.”
To Universal’s shock, Twins wasn’t just a hit upon release – it was one of the biggest movies of 1988. It made $216m at the worldwide box office, and when it came out on home video, it kept pulling in cash like it was going out of fashion.
“It was fantastic,” Schwarzenegger smiled. “We went all the way to the bank with that.”
Indeed, when asked by Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live if he made as much as $40m from Twins, the iconic star replied, “It was more than that. It was more than any movie I ever made.”
Ultimately, Schwarzenegger’s bet on himself worked out extremely well. Two years later, he re-teamed with Reitman on the family comedy Kindergarten Cop, which also made over $200m, and in 1994, he, Reitman, and DeVito reunited for Junior, which surpassed the $100m mark. Strangely, though, the three men never managed to get a Twins sequel off the ground, and when Reitman passed away in 2022, it seemingly ended that conversation for good.
