Producer Says ‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’ Stars Shouldn’t Get Pay Raise, Sequel In Jeopardy?

Fifty Shades of Grey was a big success at the box office, leading many to assume a sequel will be in the works. Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson seem to be onboard, but they have one condition first: a major pay raise. For one producer, that sounds outrageous.

According to the Vanity Fair, Fifty Shades of Grey has made $529 million at the global box office so far. That’s an impressive figure for almost any film, but considering the original budget was just $40 million, it’s pretty spectacular.

With that kind of success, people are already clamoring about Fifty Shades of Grey 2: Fifty Shades Darker, but before filming gets started, stars Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson want a pay raise.

Producer Dana Brunetti seemed to confirm the Fifty Shades’ stars were out for a bigger cut in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, and he is not happy about it.

“So I’m not going to cry for anybody who wants to be in this business just because a thing they were involved in did very well and they didn’t get paid [a lot]. That’s not the deal that you made. If it was, I’d have more than a couple Ferraris because all the money my films have made is f***ing insane. You’ve got to start somewhere.”

In addition to Fifty Shades of Grey, Brunetti has worked on Captain Phillips, and The Social Network — each movie had a medium-sized budget but a blockbuster box office return. Brunetti hopes to keep it that way.

When asked if the budget would go up for Darker, he said, “I hope not.”

“As a producer, I love the fact that we made it for as little as we did and it’s grossed as much as it has. I’ve been proud of that on all my films. Will the budget go up? Maybe if there’s renegotiations on deals and fees. But as far as the actual production is concerned, I don’t think so. We run pretty lean and mean.”

As for the two stars, People Magazine reports that Jamie Dornan seems willing to come back on for a sequel, despite the risk that Dornan will be forever typecast as a psychopath.

He reportedly said his return for Fifty Shades Darker was “always the plan.”

Dornan also hopes to see director Sam Taylor-Johnson back on the set, explaining, “The plan was always for her to do them, so hopefully that will happen. But I don’t think it’s going to be imminent.”

There were some minor scuffles between Taylor-Johnson and the book’s author E.L. James, something that Brunetti insists has been blown out of proportion.

In any case, it looks like there’s a lot of work to do before a Fifty Shades of Grey sequel gets into the theaters.

[Image Credit: Getty Image]