Show Doctor Doom the Money
Tatiana Siegel
Over the weekend, I ended my post on Robert Downey Jr. returning to the MCU – but as Dr. Doom with one thought:
I can't wait until the even bigger reveal: how much Downey Jr. is getting paid for this.
Well, that didn't take long. Tatiana Siegel would seem to have at least some of the high-level details for Variety:
But bringing back key members of the old gang won’t come cheap. Sources say Marvel is plunking down $80 million for Anthony and Joe Russo to direct “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Avengers: Secret Wars” and “significantly more” for Downey to tackle uber-villain Doctor Doom in the two tentpoles. The Russos’ deal doesn’t include back-end compensation, but it does contain performance escalators that kick in at the $750 million and $1 billion thresholds. The brothers also will produce the two films via their AGBO banner. That marks something of a departure for Marvel, which typically doesn’t work with outside producers, preferring to keep the team in house.
Okay, so that's obviously well over $100M for Downey Jr. then, but how much more?
According to one knowledgeable source, Downey is by far the highest-paid member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and has pulled down between $500 million and $600 million over the course of four “Avengers” movies, three “Iron Man” outings and cameos in “The Incredible Hulk,” “Captain America: Civil War” and “Spider-Man: Homecoming.”
That's $50M - $60M a movie on average, though obviously the starring roles are going to be much higher than the cameos (although Civil War was essentially an Iron Man movie as well, and Homecoming was close). Let's just guesstimate he was making around $75M/movie for starring roles in the MCU. For him to come back, did Disney have to double it?
He won't be starring solo in these new Avengers movies, of course, but he'll be the most important character and actor, especially with Chris Evans' Captain America no longer in the mix (well, presumably!). If they're paying Downey Jr. $150M and the Russos $40M per movie before they start filming, that's... wow. Especially given how many other actors they have to pay – like, say, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman?1 We're looking at upwards of $300M in potential salaries before anything is shot. And that would push these movies well past $500M each in terms of budget – and likely far higher with marketing.
For context, the budget of Avengers: Endgame was believed to be in the $350M - $400M range. Still, it was seemingly both a call they had to make and actually a relatively straightforward bet despite the insane sums:
Variety previously reported in a cover story on the studio’s woes that Marvel was considering pivoting from Kang to Doctor Doom as Majors’ problems mounted and that chief Kevin Feige was keen to bring back Downey, who will segue from his Broadway debut in Ayad Akhtar’s “mcneal” in the fall to preproduction on “Avengers” in the new year.
Sources say Downey, who is repped by WME, agreed to return to the MCU if the Russos, who are CAA clients, would be directing. “They were the only ones he would work with,” says a source familiar with the dealmaking.
After all, the brothers’ two “Avengers” movies earned a whopping $4.851 billion combined. As Marvel looks to regain its footing, a Downey/Russos reteaming is “a perfect combination of timing and everyone being on the same page,” says one executive close to the project.
Green, indeed.
1 No gaurantee they'd be in the next Avengers movies, of course. But given the Deadpool & Wolverine success, it seems like a wasted opportunity not to put them in...