In his heyday, Shaquille O’Neal was one of the most marketable athletes on the planet. Every brand wanted the NBA superstar to be associated with them, including movie studios. Apparently, they were even willing to pay him more money to attend the premiere than they paid their lead to star in it.
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Yes! In a discussion with the NFL Center Jason Kelce, on the latest episode of the ‘Big Podcast with Shaq’, Shaquille O’Neal opened up about a similar incident, which happened after he bagged his fourth NBA championship in 2006.
On the podcast, O’Neal revealed that he was paid $2 million to attend the premiere of Superman Returns. He said, “When I won in Miami [in 2006], I got a $2 million cheque the next day. They called me and said, ‘Hey, we want you to go to the Superman premiere… So I told [my people], ‘I don’t want to go to the Superman premiere.’
Even though Shaq was not willing to attend the premiere, the enticing amount and his team finally convinced him to be there, “They said, ‘$2 million.’ They got me on a f**king plane, I’m in f**king LA on the red carpet.”
O’Neal attended the premiere with his then-wife Shaunie. His $2 million payday for showing up to the event is allegedly more than actor Brandon Routh was paid to play Superman in the movie. Per networthcelebrities.com, he was paid $1 million to star in the film, half the amount O’Neal was handed to watch it. This speaks volumes about the Hall of Famer’s popularity and demand at the peak of his powers.
Shaquille O’Neal’s obsession with Superman
The studio wanting Shaquille O’Neal at the premiere of ‘Superman Returns’ wasn’t only due to the then-Miami Heat superstar’s popularity. The four-time champion was also invited because he was obsessed with Superman.
O’Neal gave himself the nickname and even got the Superman logo tattooed on his bicep. Recently, he also showed off his diamond-studded Superman logo chain on Instagram in a post captioned,
“The one and only SUPERMAN. “DONT COMPARE ME TO NOBODY, I rather not BE MENTIONED. I’M Offended”. quote from one of my favorite people JAY Z”.
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O’Neal’s obsession with the iconic comic book character extends to his bedroom as well. His enormous 15×30 bed is covered with a blanket bearing the Superman on top.
Googled Shaq’s bed and I’m hollering pic.twitter.com/PbMBdzUhyT
— Rhinestone Couchboy (@smokeychristmas) January 19, 2020
Last year, he even bought a Mansory Rolls Royce Phantom worth $1.5 million bearing a Superman logo on the grill. On top of all that, O’Neal even beefed with Dwight Howard and made the three-time Defensive Player of the Year award winner’s life miserable because he dared to claim the Superman cape. Nobody can steal the title of NBA’s man of steel from the Hall of Famer.
