Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the most recognizable action movie stars on this planet. He is also one of the richest and, at several points in his career, has been the highest paid actor in the world. However, that wasn’t always the case. Like most people, the Austrian Oak had a slow start to his illustrious career. Before he could command the high salaries that would become the norm in his career, he would make paltry sums in comparison. This would change after the tremendous success of Terminator.
Set against a budget of $6.4 million, the science fiction action movie grossed $78.3 million worldwide! Orion pictures, the distributors of the movie, did not have faith in the film. They feared that it would bomb at the box office.
However, the movie performed much better than their expectations and much of the credit went to Schwarzenegger’s portrayal of the titular character.
Although, the 7-time Mr. Olympia only had less than one percent of the box office collections to show for it.
Arnold Schwarzenegger only made $75,000 for the first Terminator movie
Arnold Schwarzenegger moved to the United States in the late 60’s to try his hand in movies. However, he did not make his breakthrough until his starring role in Conan the Barbarian back in 1982. This led to a casting in James Cameron’s Terminator where he portrayed the role of a cyborg assassin sent back in time.
The movie was created with a much lower budget than its future sequels. Combined with the fact that despite playing the role of the titular character, Schwarzenegger only had 17 speaking lines in the entire film, he was only offered $75,000.
The actor, however, performed to the best of his abilities. Several movie critics praised the casting, Unsurprisingly, this particular role has now become synonymous with the Austrian.
He went on to make much more for subsequent sequels
The success of the first movie encouraged James Cameron to create more sequels with Arnold Schwarzenegger reprising his role as the unstoppable cyborg. He was given $15 million for his portrayal of T-800 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
He was brought back for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and made even more this time, taking home a massive $30 million. Schwarzenegger earned an extra $5 million from the film’s profits, raking in a total of $35 million!
The success of the movies generated several more movies, a television series and a couple of web series. By 2010, the franchise had generated a mind boggling $3 billion in revenue!
Schwarzenegger may not have appeared in every incarnation of the Terminator. It cannot be denied, however, that the cult status surrounding it would have been impossible without it.
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