(Credits: Far Out / Warner Bros)
Acting is a tough way to make a living. As any young performer trying to make their way in the movie business knows all too well, competition for roles is fierce, you are constantly at the whims of the marketplace, and it’s often not what you know, but who you know, that helps you land roles. However, if you are one of the lucky few who manage to forge a thriving career in Hollywood, the potential rewards are enormous.
In truth, the promise of finally making some decent money is likely what keeps so many plugging away when the future seems bleak. Every actor has heard stories of stars banking millions for one role, and those at the top of the industry have often cut deals that would make the average penniless artist weep. There is one eye-wateringly lucrative deal that sits at the very top of the Hollywood mountain, though, and it still beggars belief nearly 40 years later.
The origin of this mega-money contract began in development hell. Throughout the 1980s, Warner Bros tried in vain to get a Batman movie off the ground, with the studio keen to strike while the iron was hot after the colossal success of Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie. To play the film’s colourful villain, The Joker, Warner considered a batch of stars and character actors who would have made fascinating Clown Princes of Crime. Tim Curry, Ray Liotta, and Brad Dourif were all in the running, and the studio even contemplated casting an icon like David Bowie in the part. John Lithgow met with director Tim Burton about the project, but turned it down, and later regretted that decision.
However, the name at the top of the studio’s list had been the same since 1980, and hadn’t truly deviated: Jack Nicholson. The iconic Oscar-winning star had been most fans’ number one pick for years as well, with his manic, unpredictable energy, arching eyebrows, and undeniable menace making him perfect for the part. Nicholson took some convincing to get involved, but when he realised the studio wanted him so badly, he took the opportunity to do something unprecedented.
In the late ’80s, Nicholson’s usual fee for a movie was $10million, but he made Warner an offer. He would lower his asking price to $6m if the studio agreed to cut him in on Batman’s box office revenue and merchandise sales. In a 2005 DVD interview, Nicholson revealed that he felt Batman was primed to be a commercial behemoth, with a merchandising empire that rivalled even that of Star Wars. Other prominent figures in the industry didn’t quite share that belief, but Nicholson was willing to bet on his hunch. So, he signed the historic deal with Warner, even throwing in that he received top billing over Michael Keaton’s title character, and that he would get time off for his beloved LA Lakers’ home games.
To Nicholson’s delight, he was proved correct when Batman broke box office records on its way to a mammoth $411.6m worldwide haul. It also sold a mind-boggling array of tie-in toys, t-shirts, mugs, comic books, beach towels, and other assorted paraphernalia. The world had been swept up in what was dubbed ‘Batmania,’ and Nicholson made out like a bandit. In fact, it’s estimated that he made as much as $90m from Batman, far and away the most money any actor had made for one film at that point in history.
Analysing how Nicholson’s Batman payday broke down in terms of his screentime is an interesting exercise, as it shows just how much money someone can make in Hollywood if they know their worth and take a gamble.
In the film, Nicholson only utters 585 words of dialogue, which means he made $153,846 per word. In addition, he is on-screen for 39 minutes and 40 seconds of the 126-minute movie, breaking down to a cool $2.28 million per minute of screentime. It’s enough to make you think Prince’s hit single ‘Scandalous!’, which plays over the movie’s end credits, was a tongue-in-cheek reference to Nicholson’s astonishing deal.
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