Bodybuilder turned movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the biggest names in Hollywood. Despite looking like he was chiseled by the action movie gods themselves, Schwarzenegger has more than proved his versatility with a variety of roles in his long career. One of the first movies that allowed fans to see his acting chops was Twins. Fans had never seen the towering hulk in a comedy movie before and there he was, starring with costar Danny DeVito, making everyone belly laugh.
The film was directed by Ivan Reitman. With DeVito and Schwarzenegger also in the mix, this movie would have a budget so high no one would want to touch it. However, neither of the three thought it intelligent to lower their asking price in fear that it would hurt their abilities to negotiate a pay in the future.
How Arnold Schwarzenegger increased his net worth by over $40 million with risky deal for ‘Twins’
Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote about the movie and the challenges that came with it in his autobiography Total Recall: My Unbelievable True Story. The actor noted that the movie was an easy sell. The plot, which saw Danny DeVito and him playing the roles of Twins, would easily generate interest with them standing next to each other in a movie poster.
The main issue, however, lay in the fact that this was an off-beat movie featuring three expensive guys.
The solution that the three came up with was to not take any salary at all. Instead, they struck a deal that guaranteed them 37.5% of all the income for the movie. Schwarzenegger ended with 20% while DeVito and Reitman divided the remaining 17.5% among themselves.
“That 37.5% was real, not subject to all the watering-down and bullsh*t tricks that movie accounting is famous for,” Schwarzenegger wrote. “We divvied up the 37.5 percent among ourselves proportionally based on what each of us had earned on his previous movie. Because I’d been paid a lot for The running Man, I ended up with the biggest slice, almost 20%. It made the math simple.”
The movie went on to become a commercial success. It grossed $112 million domestically and $216 million worldwide!
20% of that went to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s pocket. It is, to date, the highest fee he has ever received from a single movie. Not too surprisingly, it was also DeVito and Reitman’s biggest paychecks of their career.
Did the three ever work again?
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito and Ivan Reitman actually got together for another movie years later. The three joined hands to create ‘Junior’ in 1994. Despite its unique plot though, this movie did not replicate the success of their previous movie.
In fact, it only grossed half of what they previously made with a total of $108 million worldwide.
However, Schwarzenegger received praises for his portrayal of Dr. Alexander “Alex” Hesse, a scientist who agrees to get pregnant with a newly developed drug.
