Dwayne Johnson Is About to Make a Lot of Money for His Next Movie

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | July 18, 2023 |

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | July 18, 2023 |

As the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes against Hollywood’s greed and ineptitude continue, there have been questions about how the entertainment industry will cope over the next few weeks, months, and beyond. Because the actors won’t be promoting any upcoming releases, there have been whispers that studios might push back the release of certain titles to ensure they don’t get lost in the hubbub. Matthew Belloni of Puck reported that director Luca Guadagnino was hoping to have the release of his latest film, the sports drama Challengers, delayed to ensure its starry cast are able to properly promote it. Others are wondering if this will impact the 2024 Oscars race and lead to a greater dominance for streaming titles that don’t require so major a marketing rollout. Whatever the case, all eyes remain on the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to, you know, actually pay their creatives fairly.

Some stars, however, are still making bank. Dwayne Johnson remains one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, even after the disappointing box office of his DC anti-hero movie Black Adam. It’s been a couple of years since he’s had a true bona fide commercial smash, but that can’t be entirely laid at his feet since there was that whole pandemic thingy. His next movie, Red One, is a Christmas action-comedy co-starring Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, and J.K. Simmons as Santa, that will premiere on Amazon later this year. Johnson has already described this movie as ‘our Christmas franchise film’, which feels a bit risky given all the hype he put into Black Adam being a total reset of the DCEU.

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It’s action, comedy, family, fantasy… all the stuff Johnson is typically very good at balancing. Clearly, Amazon thinks so too, and they’re reportedly paying through the nose to satisfy Johnson. According to the Puck newsletter, Matthew Belloni has alleged that Johnson got a total of $50 million for his lead role in Red One. That makes him the highest-paid actor for a single role ever. To put that into perspective: Will Smith got $40 million for King Richard, as did Robert Downey Jr. for Captain America: Civil War. Leonardo DiCaprio typically gets $30 million per role, as he’s earning for the upcoming Killers of the Flower Moon.

Actors do not command the kind of upfront money they used to. We’re long past the era of the likes of Julia Roberts regularly making $20 - 30 million per picture. Johnson is one of a hallowed handful of exceptions, even in an industry that goes out of its way to avoid paying people what they’re owed. As residuals shrink, many megastars working in streaming want the cash in hand as quickly as possible, and for obvious reasons given the paltry royalty cheques we’ve seen actors sharing online as the strike kicked off. Johnson’s got a tough team. They weren’t accepting anything less than the most.

I can already hear the anti-strike rhetoric in the air, claiming that actors like Johnson are so grossly overpaid that SAG-AFTRA has no right to take to the picket lines. This is obviously dumb. To a greater extent, I understand people who see this kind of payday for one person and wonder why it can’t be shared around with working actors who live cheque to cheque. Johnson is at least known for his generosity with his crews, which is more than we can say for some people. The real issue here is a combination of priorities and perspective. Streaming services grumble that there just isn’t enough money to pay the vast majority of people, but they clearly have enough for this one guy. They understand the inherent unfairness of the streaming model well enough to compensate the A-Listers but suddenly have their heads in the sand when SAG-AFTRA and the WGA want hard data on their business practices.

I think Johnson’s record-breaking salary actually further confirms the bubble of streaming and its impending pop. This is not the sign of a healthy business model. While it is another symbol of Johnson’s clout in an industry where the A-List worldwide megastar is a dying concept, it’s a reminder that everyone in Hollywood knows the reality of the current status quo. Either you get all of your money now or you never get it, and only a tiny handful of figures are able to make demands for the former. Streaming has no money yet is simultaneously breaking records, you say? Well, one or the other is true, not both.

Solidarity with both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA.