Behind Robert Downey Jr. and the Russo Brothers’ Mega ‘Avengers’ Paydays
Marvel is paying $80 million for the Russos to direct two 'Avengers' movies and 'significantly more' for Robert Downey Jr. to tackle Doctor Doom.
variety.com
[Variety] Behind Robert Downey Jr. and the Russo Brothers’ Mega ‘Avengers’ Paydays ($80m for Russos, "significantly more" for Downey.)
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I wonder how much significantly more is, I wouldn't be shocked if it's something like 250M at this point
Baffling, you're paying that much money you might as well bring back variant stark.
A totally diff character? Will always smell desperate
I think if they introduce this rdj as a multiverse where he was born as dr. Doom it would be really great. Especially when it is spiderman vs dr. doom. Also I'd like to see rdj in a villain role.
I think chris played a really great role as a villain. It was refreshing to see and I hope he will get a villain role one day again in a movie.
If I had to guess I'd say Disney are probably paying between 150m - 175m for RDJ. Crazy money, but not that surprising considering the love MCU fans have for him and what he did for the MCU. His name alone just guarantees success for these films. There's no doubt these two films will be go crazy in cinemas, but will they top IW/EG? We will see I guess.
Significantly more even than fkin 80 million?
That's just stupid. Not to mention unethical considering how much underpaying no doubt goes on with regards to crew and vfx artist and such.
That's just stupid. Not to mention unethical considering how much underpaying no doubt goes on with regards to crew and vfx artist and such.
He's not going to be playing another role as in they just pretend that he doesnt look like Tony Stark.
This is all multiverse stuff. The fact that he looks like Tony will be an integral part of the story.
They're trying to get their Endgame magic back, but paying so much for it that if it fails, oof.
Young Avengers has been on hold for so long that at this point I wonder if the movie will even release before the universe reset of Secret Wars
Well, they planted the biggest seed they could at the end of The Marvels. That's the last we've heard of it.
There will be more MCU announcements at D23 in a couple weeks so I'm expecting to find out about the movies we don't know about yet (one just before Doomsday in early 2026 and two between Doomsday and Secret Wars). I'm guessing they'll announce Shang-Chi 2, Doctor Strange 3 and I'm hoping for something Young Avengers-related.
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It's crazy to think what they will have to pay the rest of the huge cast.
A full universe reset is very unlikely. It'll be just like the comics, where most of the universe goes back to how it was but there will some changes (like how Miles Morales moved over to the main universe in the comics -- my guess is Deadpool taking that spot in the MCU).
Wouldn't most of the cast of existing characters already be contracted for both Avengers movies?
It all depends on the actor and we'll probably never know the exact details.
My personal guess is that for actors like Hugh Jackman, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, they would have signed 2-film contracts. Marvel knew the endgame (heh) was having them in Secret Wars after D&W and No Way Home.
But we'll always just be guessing, I think.
Edit: Actually, I wonder how the Spidey stuff works. Like, is that money coming from Sony, Disney or both?
Probably more. The Marvels was already 270m+ and this one will have significantly more stars on the payroll.
Marvel saw RDJ played like 5 different characters in The Sympathizer earlier this year and want in on that.
Plus the precedent is set for an actor playing different characters in different timelines/universes already so why not.
How much would "significantly more" be? 100, 120 million?
If this is what they're paying upfront PLUS any residuals/backend shares this is truly insane.
This would be 200 million upfront just for director and antagonist. According to Wikipedia Endgame had a budget of 400 mio.
This is a big bet.
Edit: Ah I overlooked that RDJ is also for two movies. Still a metric shit ton of money.
loki season 2 (kinda?) resolves this. at least from my point of view, it pretty much dealt with the kang situation.
An out of time organization (the TVA) is keeping tabs on all the Kangs. It's insinuated everything is under control now. It's not a definitive answer, but one that works.
On topic: for that amount of money I hope the Russo's deliver: everything they did in the MCU: absolutely amazing.
Everything they did after: not so much.
I have full faith in RDJ. Let's hope they give him cool stuff to work with. Actually, I'm starting to get somewhat excited for this.
Money's likely coming from Disney if it's a Disney movie, and shared between Disney and Sony if it's a Sony movie.
Probably something like that. I wouldn't be surprised if Holland's new contract is huge and includes a new solo trilogy and the two Avengers films.
So it's hard to really think about all of that in terms of a singular budget for something like Avengers.
if this fails (or just underperforms), they have pretty good way out. after secret war, they can reboot the entire thing. cheaper actors, lower budgets...
i am not worried about the 2 avengers flicks. more about thunderbolts and cap 4 b.o. performance.
I found it brilliant but have no idea if Dr Doom ever shows his actual face.
The usual reminder: they were always going to pay RDJ an obscene amount of money to return for their big multiversity Avengers film, whether the Kang stuff worked out or not.