Both Angelina Jolie and Scarlett Johansson have become two of the most sought-after actresses in Hollywood. As such, this has also skyrocketed their already huge salaries. And rightfully so, as the performances they put out not only exceed fans’ expectations but create legacies of their own.
For example, Angelina Jolie’s performance as Maleficent, and Scarlett Johansson’s performance as the Black Widow have left marks in the industry and people’s hearts alike that are hard to ever compete with. However, their performances for those iconic characters did not only bring them recognition and critical praise but also brought them some of their highest paychecks to date.
Angelina Jolie’s magnificent Maleficent performance
2013 brought to the audience a completely new experience of witnessing Angelina Jolie depicting one of the most iconic villains of all time from Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent. Although the filmmakers brought her in, recognizing her charisma to portray and give life to a character so avidly hated previously. And she did that and more by showing people a side of the witch that not only people sympathized with, but also related to.
This was exactly her intention while portraying the character it seems, as she stated, “There have been times in my life where I have felt misunderstood, like Maleficent, and not accepted.” And so, those experiences gave her the depth she needed to understand the character so wholeheartedly that people can not even think about Maleficent without matching the character to her.
This was, it seems, exactly the push she needed to bring the character to life once again on the big screen in 2019 with Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. “I’ve been through different things in my life, and I was happy to play Maleficent again,” she explained. However, as mentioned above, that was not the only thing the movie brought her.
Her first Maleficent movie brought her a whopping paycheck of $33 million, making her the highest-paid actress of the year. The second movie in the franchise, too, added a hefty sum to her $160 million net worth with $28 million upfront, and speculatively a few million more for her work as the executive producer. And now, with a third movie in production, it will be interesting to see if she beats her own record.
Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow beat Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent
Scarlett Johansson, however, beat Jolie’s humongous Maleficent payday by miles with her Avengers: Endgame salary. Although the Marriage Story actress started her Marvel career in 2010 Iron Man 2 as Natasha Romanoff with a $400 thousand salary, later the studio ended up bringing the actress what turned out to be her highest paycheck ever.
Reportedly, Johansson’s Marvel salary increased with Infinity War garnering her a $15 million paycheck upfront. However, just two years later, in Marvel’s most big budgeted and inarguably most ambitious movie, Avengers: Endgame she got paid $20 million upfront.
As if the instant $5 million increase was not enough, the total of her salary after the release with profits and bonuses including turned into a gargantuan $35 million. Which obviously put her ahead of Angelina Jolie, however, that is not the end. Right as Johansson’s MCU career ended, Angelina Jolie joined the studio in Eternals with a salary of $35.5 million, now that should have meant that Jolie finally beat the Lost in Translation actress.
However, Johansson’s Black Widow was released the same year, and due to Disney putting it on their streaming service, Johansson sued them as that violated her contract with them and made her lose big money. Disney in an attempt to resolve the conflict approached the actress with a proposal to settle things out of court, which resulted in Johansson earning $40 million more.
That turned her already $20 million upfront paycheck into a massive $60 million, which is close to what she would have made as also the executive producer for the movie. However, with the Black Widow’s sacrificial death, her Marvel career is at an end.
Angelina Jolie on the other hand is just starting out with Eternals 2 reportedly hitting the theaters soon. So, it will be interesting to see if the Salt actress manages to outshine Johansson’s staggering payday in the coming years.
Source: Showbiz CheatSheet
