It’s no secret that Hollywood actors make buckets of money for nearly every project that they do. The bigger the movie, the bigger the paycheck. This is even more true for massive franchises like the MCU.
Marvel movies have some of the most passionate fans in the world, meaning people flood the theaters for every single one. For the Avengers films, the actors and actresses were paid millions to play beloved characters. Robert Downey Jr. played the role of Iron Man in the Avengers films, and he was handsomely rewarded.
For the first appearance as his superhero, Downey was paid $500,000. to play the main character in the movie, “Iron Man,” which was released in 2008. There was a surprising amount of box office success for the movie, earning around $585 million. Downey ended up walking away with a salary of at least $2 million.
The Iron Man movies continued to create a trilogy. For the following movies, Downey signed a contract for $10 million. The box office made more than the lost, with “Iron Man 3” passing the $1 billion mark.
The real money started flowing in for Downey when he revived Iron Man for the “Avengers” crossover films.
For the 2012 movie, “The Avengers,” Downey signed for $10 million. After calculating the box office sales, his cut came out to more than $50 million. But that’s nothing compared to what he earned for the last two Avenger films.
For “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame,” Downey had a contract for $75 million for each, according to “The Guardian” which didn’t include the percentage of sales he received from the total profits.
After “Avengers: Endgame,” Downey reflected on his experience with MCU and pushing beyond those boundaries.
In an interview with “Off Camera,” he said, “Realistically, to put it in a nutshell, I had an incredible 10-year run that was creatively satisfying, it was very, very hard work and I dug deep; but I have not been forced to explore the new frontier of what is my creative and personal life after this. It’s always good to get ahead of where you’re about to be.”
He’s definitely not letting his legacy as Iron Man get in the way of taking on roles that don’t involve flying through the air in a red-and-gold metal suit in order to fight Thanos.
His most recent project is “Dolittle,” a fantasy-adventure film that was released on Jan. 17. He plays Dr. John Dolittle, a veternarian who can talk to animals and isolates himself from humans. After Queen Victoria becomes ill, he must take a journey out to an island to find a cure.
