Scarlett Johansson Is Reportedly Getting $15 Million for Black Widow Solo Movie
Earlier this year Scarlett Johansson was named the highest-paid actress of 2018. The Marvel star unseated Emma Stone for the title after earning $40.5 million – a sum my brain cannot even fathom – between June of 2017 and this past June. Thanks to this little unknown character she plays named Black Widow (maybe you’ve heard of her), Johansson’s annual salary is about to skyrocket to even crazier degrees.
The Hollywood Reporter has a new item revealing Johansson’s payday for her upcoming Black Widow solo movie: $15 million. Psh, peanuts right?! In all seriousness though, that’s pretty damn incredible. That’s the same amount Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans earned for Infinity War alone. So it only took her, you know, five Marvel movies to make the same amount as her male co-stars. The figure is way beyond the $500,000 Robert Downey Jr. took home for his first Iron Man outing, but also nothing close to the alleged $50 million payday he got for the first Avengers.
Her Black Widow salary is also record number for a Marvel spinoff not starring a white man. Reports claimed Chadwick Boseman earned $2 million for Black Panther, while Brie Larson is said to have taken home $5 million for Captain Marvel. So clearly, Marvel is upping their salaries for their solo spinoffs. It’s also worth noting though that this figure is just a report, and a Marvel rep disputed the number to THR, noting that the studio “never publicly disclose[s] salaries or deal terms.”
Black Widow is being directed by Cate Shortland (Lore, Berlin Syndrome), the first woman to solo direct a Marvel movie – Captain Marvel is being co-directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, while Chloe Zhao was recently named as the director for The Eternals. Black Widow doesn’t have a release date yet, but we’ll see Johansson’s superhero return next May in Avengers 4.