orangerunner

In a recent interview actress Natalie Portman claims that her paycheques for starring in "No Strings Attached" was three times less than co-star Ashton Kutcher.

The article goes on to debate whether there is gender-bias in Hollywood.

It's an old story but the bottom line is there is no fairness when it comes to payouts in Hollywood. As a star, you are only worth what your last films' box office receipts say you're worth.

Julia Roberts makes more money per film than Richard Gere. Why? Because Julia Roberts has more box office hits. Simple as that.

If you're a big star in an ensemble cast, I imagine the pay is less because of less screen time.

I'm pretty sure the union's scale rates for both actors and actresses are the same. Star salaries? They're negotiable. The star (or agent) wants the most amount of money and the studio wants to pay the least it can get away with.

Some actors overplay their hand. I recall Vin Diesel asking some outrageous amount of money at the time ($20 million?) for 2 Fast 2 Furious. The studio called his bluff and just brought back Paul Walker.

Even some films that make a lot of money don't necessarily justify higher pay for the lead star.

An example off the top of my head is the 1989 Batman. I think it was the top grossing film that year but it didn't put Michael Keaton in a position where he could write his own paycheck for his next project.

What studio executives felt was that the success of that film was attributed to Jack Nicholson and the familiarity of the Batman franchise - not Michael Keaton.

They were right. Michael Keaton, an excellent actor, did not have the same box office draw as stars like Jack Nicholson, Kevin Costner, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Harrison Ford, Bruce Willis & Tom Cruise - who drew in audiences simply by putting their name above the title.

Box office numbers proved this to be true so they continued to cash bigger & bigger cheques. As soon as their box office numbers dropped, their paycheques shrunk.

RichC2

Earned 3 times as less, this was about 1 movie she did.

That's more or less poor negotiating skills there, but I can't recall how popular Ashton Kutcher was back then.

d2cheer

Sfw...

Decker

It's "One third as much", not "three times less".

And the movie was fucking awful.

GoldenJCJ

I saw No Strings Attached. She was overpaid.

orangerunner

You'll have to inform Emily Yahr of The Washington Post (writer of the original article) that her grammar is not up to snuff.

Crocker Jarmen

And have her snipe at me for "mansplaining"? No thanks.

DthRdrX

Then don't sign on to do the movie. Problem Solved.

nando820

In an ideal world they both should have been paid the same. Which is nothing cause that movie sucked. They should had paid us!

Deadman31

Thats what happens when you lose the will to live instead of sucking up and raising your twins. Plus she should have slept with Jar-Jar. Plus she sucks.

DVD Josh

If it makes her feel better, she is three times as hot as Aston, so that's something.

Spiderbite

Show her tits. That usually helps the old wallet.

Unclejosh

She wasn't as big a star as Ashton was at the time simple as that and didn't have the BO or famous celeb factor clout to demand more.

Jennifer Lawrence is getting paid almost 2x as much as Chris Pratt for Passengers in base salary PLUS she gets 30% backend which if the movie makes any money could end up being way more than 3X and Chris Pratt is WAY more of a star and draw than Portman has ever been.

Yes I know this could be all related to the women pay backlash so Sony could be seen as not being guilty of not paying women fairly. However JL has proven to be a decent BO draw more so than Pratt so far anyway. Plus 3 Oscars noms and 1 win can bump your pay as well.

DthRdrX

I don't understand JL even getting big roles. I think she's terrible lol. I actually like Natalie Portman.

DVD Josh

She takes great pictures, that's for damn sure.

kd5

I thought she was pretty damned good in V for Vendetta.

mikehunt

oh no a multi-millionaire didn't make quite as many millions
guess she needs a better negotiating team

resinrats

Apart from Star Wars (which can't count since its Star Wars), has Portman really ever been a leading star in a big hit? Co-Star in Thor but like SW, that has a build in fanbase who were going to see it no matter who starred in it.

Defiant1

Black Swan made $106M domestic and $329M global on a budget of $13M. And she won the Oscar for it too.

Ranger

HOw much did Margot Robbins get paid for Suicide Squad? I think WIll SMith got $20 million.

GoldenJCJ

Yeah, Black Swan seems to be the movie that put Portman in the upper echelon. However, from what I can gather, the acclaim for her performance in Black Swan came after No Strings Attached so that wouldn't have played any part in negotiating her deal for No Strings Attached.

Hazel Motes

I don't see a gender bias even a little bit in Hollywood when it comes to stars. Whoever puts more asses in the seats gets the bigger paycheck. Some men get paid more than women and some women get paid more than men. If someone is going to earn you box office receipts you're going to get paid. Like these shark agents/managers/lawyers/publicists aren't squeezing every last dime out of studio's.

I think the C list actors are the ones who see more of a gender bias.

TheMovieman

Not sure about Margot Robbins, but Margot Robbie most certainly will get a very nice pay bump for Gotham City Sirens.

Michael Corvin

Are you really comparing a rookie actress to an actor that was not only in 14 films that grossed more than $100m but was the lead carrying all 14 films?

This is all it boils down to. Will Smith still gets asses in seats so Will Smith still gets $20m per gig.

The big difference that I notice in regards to gender is that when an actress gets hot, like Jennifer Lawrence, Hollywood tends to focus on that one leading lady getting all the choice roles. On the flip side all the male roles are spread around multiple leading men.

JimRochester

There is routinely a list of overpaid actors and actresses. I do know Kutcher was extremely hot at the time. Was this a Kutcher vehicle and they were just looking for a love interest, or was this an ensemble, or was it a Portman vehicle they needed a leading man for. If it was the first she has nothing to complain about. Second or third then yes she got screwed.

I know Lawrence complained she was paid less than Cooper in one of their movies even though it was a joint project. Again though not sure if he was hot after the Hangover movies and her star was still rising or not.

She is a great actress and I would certainly be willing to bang her if she asked nicely. However, would the same audience have gone to see Kutcher with some other leading lady as much as Portman with another leading man? My guess is with the intended audience of that movie, Kutcher was the draw.