DC Universe has made certain celebrities even richer. While several actors have made it to the superhero brand, not all stars earn the big bucks. Most frontline superheroes are played by a group of remarkable actors who have occupied the chart of highest-paid DC actors of all time.
However, DC’s iconic villain Joker, played by Jared Leto, has made a hard-to-swallow contract for DC as he took home $7 million in his less than eight-minute screen time. Later, the outskirt DC movie Joker made Joaquin Phoenix even more bucks, but his salary for the sequel was even more astonishing.
Joaquin Phoenix’s DC Salary
Jared Leto’s Joker in Suicide Squad made him about $1,000,000 per minute, an awe-inspiring feat, indeed. Beyond the DC mainline slates, Todd Phillips had this wonderful vision to make a solo Joker movie— with a thematic dystopian carnage of psychological dread— releasing it in 2019 with Joaquin Phoenix in the lead.
It was a huge success grossing over $1.074 billion worldwide with the record-breaking feat of the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2019 and the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time. With the title role in the Phillips’ DC flick, Phoenix earned $4.5 million. Surely, he had no complaints, as the actor went on to win an Oscar for Best Actor for putting his body and soul into the character to forge Joker.
As the first film was a mass hit and had its fair share of critical success, Warner Brothers had almost no issues holding back its much-anticipated sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux. Following the structure of the original Joker storyline, the $150 million sequel would be musical, and Phoenix has reportedly taken home $20 million for the title role. Joker: Folie à Deux will hit the theaters on 4 October 2024.
Joaquin Phoenix Is Not The Highest Paid DC Actor
To be fair, it is a tough road to be on the top of DC’s highest-paid actors. One might imagine that the frontline heroes of the brand, including Henry Cavill’s Superman and Ben Affleck’s Batman, would rank at the topmost spots. However, that’s not the case. Of course, Cavill made $14 million for his DCEU debut, and Affleck also made it to the list. Although his debut salary is still unknown, he made $12.5 million for Suicide Squad with remarkably low screentime.
Other actors, including Will Smith, earned $13 million for Suicide Squad, Jason Momoa’s first Aquaman earned him $3 million, which rocketed to $15 million in the 2023 sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. While Phoenix’s salary for Joker: Folie à Deux was considerably soaring a great height, he was not the highest-paid actor in the franchise.
Wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne Johnson has made his mark both in WWE and in Hollywood with his charisma and prowess as an action star. After appearing in several action movies, including the Fast and Furious franchise, the actor made his DCU debut with Black Adam in 2022, playing the title character.
Reportedly, Johnson took home a whopping $22.5 million paycheck for playing the antihero. However, the box-office collection of the Jaume Collet-Serra-directed movie was not very impressive, as it grossed $393 million against the huge production budget of $260 million.
