Quote:
Originally Posted by nik-
Again, I loved the movie, however here is a reminder of why it is absolutely ridiculous that Marvel/Disney won't pay the actors like Terrence Howard and Ed Norton a real salary and just recast instead. Mickey Rourke was initially offered $250,000 for his role in Iron Man 2.
http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=avengers11.htm
... 3 days. |
I wouldn't blame them on most of those.
Terrence Howard demanded to be the highest paid cast member for the sequel; more than even RDJ! Sorry, but in no way could they allow that to happen. Maybe he was the "biggest" name for the first movie at the time, but that did not mean he deserved to be the highest paid actor for the second in a supporting role. Howard is supposedly not regarded highly in the movie world either (which is why he has been mostly a television actor recently).
Then there is Norton, who we all know is a talented actor; but Norton has been a major control freak on set since pretty much day one (American History X). He tried to force his input into the script of The Incredible Hulk, and even went as far as telling people that he was a co-writer of the movie (which really pissed the producers off). However, when they released the cut of the movie that was not to his satisfaction Norton sulked and refused to help promote the movies. He didn't do the red carpet treatment, or go on any talk shows. Liv Tyler was forced to take all that on, which probably hurt the movie at the box office. If Norton wasn't such a dick he would have been brought back (probably as the second lead behind Downey).
As for Rourke, the guy isn't really the biggest name, nor was he cast in the biggest role. I know he was in the middle of a renascence at the time, but he was still mostly doing straight to DVD movies. I imagine he was well compensated in the end, but don't forget even RDJ was paid less than a million in the first movie, so sacrifices have been made by many of the actors.
Finally don't forget that Marvel/Disney has committed billions to these movies, and they need to make cuts where they can. Look how much Disney lost out on John Carter; these movies are major risks. There was no guarantee Avengers was going to perform this well; Green Lantern was a failure, X-Men First Class didn't meet the expectations that the first series set, Captain America fared poorly overseas, and while Thor performed the best of them, it still did not come close to matching the usual heavyweights (Transformers, Harry Potter, Pirates, etc).
Obviously Avengers is going to beat their expectations, so hopefully that helps out in the production of future releases.