Robert Downey Jr. Reveals He Made $50 Million From ‘The Avengers’

Robert Downey Jr. has revealed that he earned around $50 million for his performance as Tony Stark in the The Avengers.

Joss Whedon’s superhero epic has grossed $1.51 billion since it was released last May. Only James Cameron’s Titanic and Avatar have made more at the box office, and Downey Jr. profited from its success too.

After 2008’s Iron Man, Downey Jr. negotiated a new contract with Marvel Studios, which saw him pocket a percentage of the profits from future films that he starred as Iron Man in.

Now, The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that this deal ended up earning Downey Jr. around $50 million just from The Avengers.

They stated that Downey’s representatives from CAA and Hansen Jacobson law film were able to get the actor between five and seven percent of Marvel’s revenue from the movies.

It is thought that the other actors who starred in The Avengers, such as Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner and Mark Ruffalo, each signed on for much smaller sums of money. It is thought that they made between $2 and $3 million each, whilst Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson each earned around double that sum.

GQ asked Downey Jr about this monstrous number, and he responded, “yeah,” before adding, “Isn’t that crazy? They’re so p*****. I can’t believe it. I’m what’s know as “a strategic cost’.”

In the past, Johnny Depp made around $250 million from the four Pirates of the Caribbean movies, whilst director Michael Bay took home around $80 million just from the first Transformers movie, whilst he likely made more the three follow ups too.

Downey Jr. will be reprising his role as Tony Stark and Iron Man later this month in Iron Man 3, which will see him star alongside Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Kingsley, Paul Bettany, and Don Cheadle. Shane Black has replaced Jon Favreau in the director’s chair though.

Do you think Robert Downey Jr. deserved this amount?