Gal Gadot & Henry Cavill Paid the Same in DCEU

Gal Gadot's paycheck for Wonder Woman wasn't as low, comparatively-speaking, as a previous report had indicated. Following the release of Wonder Woman earlier this month, Warner Bros. has finally succeeded in making a DC Extended Universe film that is both financially and critically successful, following three DCEU installments that were commercial hits but critically divisive, at best. Wonder Woman isn't just the turning point in the DCEU that many fans had been hoping for, it's also the film to cement Gal Gadot as a bonafide movie star - something fans and critics had seen hints of in last year's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Indeed, through her work behind-the-scenes with director Patty Jenkins, Gadot managed to give one of the best performances of 2017 so far and has firmly established herself as one of the most formidable onscreen players in the comic book genre nowadays. For those very reasons, many fans were shocked by last night's report that Gadot had only been paid $300,000 to star in Wonder Woman - something that seemed all the stranger, given that the same report stated that Henry Cavill had been paid $14 million to play Clark Kent/Superman in 2013's DCEU entry, Man of Steel.

However, now that many industry insiders have been quick to call those numbers into question, a new article today by Vanity Fair explains that Gadot was actually paid to be in Wonder Woman, at the very least, the same amount as Cavill in Man of Steel. The report states that while, yes, Cavill has made $14 million playing Superman, that number doesn't just include his initial paycheck for Man of Steel, but also all of his bonuses for box office performance, which likely includes what he made on Batman v Superman as well. Meanwhile, Gadot's $300,000 is just the base pay for each DC film she's made up until this point, which means she's going to end up making a lot more than $300,000 on Wonder Woman once the bonus checks start coming in.

The report goes on to state that the $300,000 base pay is similar (if not the exact same) as to what Cavill agreed to be paid when he originally signed on for Man of Steel, and it's something that is becoming increasingly more common with these franchise films. After all, it's a fair amount of compensation to start with for any entry-level actor signing on to a franchise of this magnitude, and as the franchise gains more traction and steam, this gives the actors a chance to make more money as time goes on.

This pay strategy is something that Marvel Studios perfected with their Marvel Cinematic Universe films; starting out each of their actors with a respectable base pay, and then allowing them to negotiate for higher paychecks as they starred in more films and their names became more valuable to the studio. Robert Downey Jr. famously helped his fellow MCU stars negotiate for more money several years back, and judging by the current, seemingly never-ending financial success of Wonder Woman at the box office right now, it's a very likely possibility that Gadot will walk away from that film having made even more money than any of her DCEU costars have on their movies, up until this point. If so, it would be a much-deserved milestone for the breakout star.