Unless you’ve been living under a rock, then you probably know that the male-female pay gap in Hollywood (and let’s be honest, everywhere) is still alive and well. Remember in 2014 during the Sony hack scandal when it was revealed that Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence were paid less than Jeremy Renner and Bradley Cooper for their work in American Hustle? Ultimately, one of the co-chairmen of Sony said it was — basically — because the actresses didn’t ask to get paid more, but the actors did. (A lot of employers claim this is the reason why they pay women less than men, too).
Well, there’s another Tinseltown pay gap scandal and this time it is centered around Wonder Woman. According to recent reports, Gal Gadot was only paid $300K for her starring role in this superhero flick… which seems awfully suspicious considering it’s already made $438.5 million at the box office. While Gal still has the chance to put some more money in the bank due to back-end film profits, $300,000 for a multi-million dollar movie seems, well, absurd.
Wonder Woman‘s pay compared to the Man of Steel has been all anyone has been able to talk about, but we thought it might be ~illuminating~ to look at what some other Hollywood guys were paid for their lead roles in superhero films, too.
7. Henry Cavill for Man of Steel: $14M
Gal Gadot made $300,000 for Wonder Woman as compared to Henry Cavill’s $14M for Man of Steel. The most compelling DC villain is the pay gap.
— Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) June 20, 2017
While this is the #1 stat that is being spread to prove that Gal was totally effed over by DC Entertainment, it’s unclear whether Henry was paid $14M upfront (which tbh, I’d doubt) or if this was his total earnings from the Man of Steel movie — including back-end compensation and box office bonuses. Finding his upfront salary has been incredibly difficult. Maybe that’s for a reason.
6. Chris Evans for Captain America: $300K
While this would look like a point for DC saying — no, they don’t underpay their female actors — it’s not quite as cut-and-dry as that. His pay went up to two-freakin’-million dollars for the Avengers flick, whereas Gal’s three-movie contract keeps her at $300K upfront for every film (for now).
5. Andrew Garfield for The Amazing Spider-Man: $500K
It’s not like Emma Stone‘s ex had a ton of big roles prior to Spider-Man, so this disparity is definitely fishy. That said, Spider-Man is Marvel and Wonder Woman is DC Entertainment.
4. Paul Rudd for Ant-Man: $300K
Paul and Gal were offered the same amount of cash upfront. Then again, Ant-Man made $519.3 million dollars in the Box Office all-in-all, and it’s looking like WW will surpass that in under a month.
3. Chris Hemsworth for Thor: 200K
Whoever negotiated this Chris’ contract really screwed the pooch with this one, because he was way underpaid for his lead role in Thor. When he reprised the role for Avengers: Age of Ultron, he was paid a cool $5M.
2. Chris Pratt for Guardians of the Galaxy: $350K
Another Marvel film, the former Parks and Recreation guy is still paid slightly more than Gal for his part. (Let’s not even talk about the fact that Zoe Saldana was paid a puny $100K for her role in the movie. Sure, it was smaller but… that much smaller?! I don’t think so.)
1. Ryan Reynolds for Deadpool: $2M upfront
Blake Lively‘s bae definitely worked out the sweetest deal. Not only was he paid two million dollars UPFRONT, but he was the only actor in the film eligible for back-end compensation. Once the film crossed $500 million in the box office, Ry apparently cashed in an extra 10 million dollars. While his big payday probably has something to do with the fact that he’s a dude, his incredible popularity (therefore drawing in more audiences) is to blame for the massive chack he got from 20th Century Fox while filming Deadpool.
So, looking at the facts — do you think Gal Gadot was underpaid for her work in Wonder Woman? Moreover, do you think she was ripped off on account of her being female? Let us know in the comments below!