When Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman exploded into theaters in the summer of 2017, going on to earn $822 million at the box office and score the best reviews the DCEU has ever seen, an honor it still holds four years later, it turned Gal Gadot into an international superstar.
However, some fans were furious when reports began circulating around the internet that she’d only been paid $300,000 for headlining the global smash hit, compared to the reputed $14 million Henry Cavill netted from his debut in Man of Steel. As it turns out, the stories weren’t even true; while Gadot did pocket $300,000 upfront, she made millions more through profit participation and back-end clauses.
In a new interview with Elle, Gadot addressed her remuneration and even went so far as to claim that she wouldn’t have returned for Wonder Woman 1984 as a matter of principle had she not been fairly compensated for her efforts.
“If you look at it like a card game, my hand got better. I was willing to drop the ball and not do it if I wasn’t paid fairly… because when I’m righteous, I’m also right.”
Gadot is estimated to have earned roughly $20 million from the sequel, and that’s not including the hefty bonus she and Jenkins were awarded when Wonder Woman 1984 was sent to HBO Max the same day it hit theaters, so the Warner Bros. money men ended up putting their hands in their pockets without much fuss at the end of the day.
