Despite what fans or critics may say about the movie, Fifty Shades of Grey has taken in over $500 million at the worldwide box office. Now, the actors are demanding their cut.
No matter what anyone says, the sequels to Fifty Shades of Grey will be hitting theaters over the next few years. Despite reports that author E.L. James wants Universal to let her write the screenplay for the next film, a deal will end up being made at some point. But, it looks like the bigger deals to be made are salaries for the two stars, Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan.
Johnson and Dornan are reportedly asking for seven-figure deals, a bit higher than the 250K they both received for the first film, which had a modest $40M budget. Since the first film was a massive success, at least financially, it’s possible they will see raises. The question is just how much of a raise.
Essentially everyone that saw the film universally agreed that the two had literally zero chemistry, and we’re curious if that will have an effect on whether they’re able to negotiate better deals for the sequels. Both actors signed three-picture deals, but just like most of these new franchise film stars, they’ll have their agents renegotiating for seven-figure salaries for Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed.
What’s also interesting is that neither Dakota Johnson nor Jamie Dornan received any sort of backend deal for the first film, which isn’t uncommon, but would have been a smart move considering the first film hit it big with $500 million worldwide on its $40M budget.
For reference, Jennifer Lawrence was paid just $500K for her role as Katniss in the highly successful The Hunger Games, and renegotiated for Catching Fire, and received $10 million for her role in the second film. Her payday for the other two films aren’t officially known, but they’re most likely even higher due to their continued financial and critical success.
Twilight stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson had similar stories, receiving around $300K for the first Twilight, and ending up with $25 million for Breaking Dawn Part 1 & 2.
The difference in those two franchises and Fifty Shades of Grey is that The Hunger Games has enjoyed critical success as well as financial success, and has Jennifer Lawrence starring. Twilight was a box office phenomenon, with rabid fans willing to see the franchise to the end.
We’re not quite as sure about Fifty Shades of Grey’s future, as it wasn’t well-liked by even its own fans. Not to mention, it’s running into issues with author E.L. James demanding Universal to let her write the next film’s screenplay.
There’s no doubt, though, that Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan should receive bumps in salary for the next few films, but it’ll be interesting if the Fifty Shades’ sequels are able to obtain the same amount of hype when they come out over the next few years.
Maybe this is all just severance pay for two people having to work with each other who obviously can’t stand to be in the same room together.