Matt Damon and Ben Affleck share a decade-old friendship. The duo first appeared in Gus Van Sant’s acclaimed psychological drama Good Will Hunting. Notably, the duo wrote the screenplay for the film. Despite being a successful actor, Affleck has been doing a wonderful job as a director as well. His 2012 thriller Argo won the Best Picture Oscar.
Most recently, Damon starred in Affleck-directed Air. Damon played Nike basketball executive, Sonny Vaccaro who partnered with basketball rookie Michael Jordan to revolutionize the sports shoe industry and contemporary culture.
Matt Damon Pocketed Staggering $30 Million for Air
Matt Damon received a staggering $30 million payday for his role in Air. As per reports, it was the highest payday in his career. The Amazon original movie was made with $90 million. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Amazon paid $120 million for the rights and package. However, the box office performance of the movie has not been skyrocketing as expected. “There’s too much riding on every new theatrical release,” one distributor said.
The movie was set to be a mainstream sports drama but somehow the likes of it did not go well in the commercial space. So far, the movie made $89.1 million at the box office which is yet to receive the profit margin. Out of the budget, Damon had the highest payday for sure but it is a question of his staggering payday return in the collection as well.
Despite poor performance at the box office, Air was well-received by the critics. It has a fresh 92% Rotten Tomatoes rating and Metacritic rated the movie with 73%.
Also read: Matt Damon Said MCU Star Jeremy Renner Killed His Hard-Earned $1.6B Bourne Franchise: “Shot it in the head”
Matt Damon on Playing Sonny Vaccaro in Air
In an interview with Collider, Damon revealed how he played the loveable character Sonny Vaccaro in Ben Affleck’s Air. He further discussed how the co-screenwriter Alex Convery captured the spirit of the characters.
“A lot of was there on the page, with what Alex wrote. We were really trying to capture the spirit of these people, in this time, more than anything, rather than exactly who said what, at exactly what moment,” Damon said.
Damon also said that the backdrop of the story involves people in the film who are independent of one another, especially at Nike. Damon and his team have discussed those characters while being nostalgic. That’s what the makers tried to create in the film.
“We wanted to remind people they were the underdog, which is such a weird way to think of Nike now. Before this incredible deal, they really were renegades and outsiders. That was really what we were trying to get. The characters all had this incredible infectious energy that I thought was really jumping off the page. The script was really quite something.”
Damon further revealed that he and Affleck have some nostalgic moments with Jordan and stressed the fact that the movie has something for everyone. “It’s not a strictly sports movie. For the sports aficionado, they’ll love the behind the curtain type of stuff that’s in here,” The Martian actor said.
Air also stars Viola Davis as Michael Jordan’s mother, Deloris Jordan.
Air is currently streaming on Amazon.
Source: The West.
