Beneath all the glamor and razzle-dazzle of Hollywood lays a dusty and dismaying layer of wage gap between actresses and their male co-stars, an ordeal not new in the film industry but certainly a serious one. Some of the most renowned actresses, including The Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence and MCU veteran Scarlett Johansson have borne the brunt of gender pay gap.
Add to that list, Angelina Jolie – Hollywood’s femme fatale/filmmaker doubling as a philanthropist who, despite being a leading actress, earned bafflingly less than her male counterpart who she would later go on to marry.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith – Angelina Jolie Was Woefully Underpaid
In her prolific career spanning decades, Doug Liman’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith turned out to be Angelina Jolie‘s highest-grossing film before Maleficent outshone it in 2014. Starring Jolie and her ex-husband, Brad Pitt, the action-comedy amassed $487.3 million globally against a budget of $110 million.
Since the film fared well at the box office, one would assume that the leading duo would end up having a great payday, and while that’s true for Pitt, the same can’t be said for Jolie.
While the former was paid generously with a fat paycheck of roughly $20 million, the Academy Award-winning actress took home only half of that amount. Losing out on such a huge chunk of well-deserved money purely because of misogyny is definitely not something any woman would like to experience. $10 million is not a trivial matter after all. Not to mention, Jolie, 47, and Pitt, 59, were both romantically involved during that time, so such a pay gap was obviously only likely to dishearten her even more.
Angelina Jolie’s Current Net Worth
Jolie’s track record as a film star expands to encompass numerous different genres, from action and drama to fantasy and superhero flicks, she’s done it all. And thanks to the same, she’s presently sitting on a net worth of easily $160 million, the accumulation of which has also led to her being crowned as one of the highest-paid actresses in the industry.
Starting off with a meagre $7 million from her first Lara Croft venture that launched her toward stardom and success, Jolie soon achieved greater heights, earning $10-13 million more in the latter years of her career. Even so, Robert Stromberg’s Disney spectacle, Maleficent, continues to remain a precious jewel in her portfolio which gained her an incredible sum of $33 million, her highest salary for a movie role yet.
The Salt star’s net worth, however, is tremendously less than her former romantic partner and industry hotshot Pitt, who rules on a throne of $400 million. That’s not to say she’s lacking in skill or talent by any means. Besides, she definitely takes the cake for versatility – an actress, a producer, a humanitarian, a model, and a mother of 6 kids? Now those are some impressive credentials.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith is available on Netflix.
Source: HuffPost
