Though Marvel Studios has a lot of money to throw around these days, the studio has a reputation for being relatively stingy when it comes to the amount they pay their biggest stars for their first outings in the franchise. Chris Hemsworth, for example, received just $150,000 for 2011’s Thor, despite the film’s total budget being one thousand times that amount. For the upcoming Captain Marvel, however, it seems that Brie Larson landed a much better deal than her colleagues.
THR reports that the Oscar-winning actress is making $5 million for Carol Danvers’ MCU debut, a total that tops the fee for any other first-timer in the franchise. Seeing how even Chadwick Boseman – who’d already appeared as T’Challa in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War – earned just $2 million for 2018’s Black Panther, it’s clear that Marvel has a lot of faith in Larson to deliver a heroine that filmgoers will want to see.
The studio’s trust probably isn’t misplaced, either. According to a recent projection from Variety, Captain Marvel is currently tracking for an impressive $100 million-plus opening weekend in North America, placing the movie at least ahead of the likes of Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. What’s more, the film has already performed well in advance ticket sales, and has yielded a strong response from early screenings.
With the social media embargo officially lifting this Tuesday, we should get an idea soon enough of how filmgoers will take to Captain Marvel, but the real test comes when the movie hits theaters on March 8th, 2019. After that, Carol Danvers will be joining the rest of her superhero peers in Avengers: Endgame, which is set for release on April 26th.
