10 Co-Stars Paid Vastly Different Salaries For The Same Film

7. Richard Pryor & Christopher Reeve - Superman III

The Wolf of Wall Street
Warner Bros.

It's well known at this point that Christopher Reeve's $250,000 salary for Richard Donner's original Superman film was epically dwarfed by Marlon Brando's gigantic $3.7 million haul for briefly portraying Supes' father Jor-El.

But that wasn't the only time in the franchise that Reeve ended up getting the short end of the stick. 

By the time Superman III rolled around, you might assume that Reeve's salary had massively leapt up, and while he was paid $1 million for the sequel - a fair quadrupling of his salary in the first film - it still paled hugely in comparison to one of his co-stars.

Legendary comedian Richard Pryor played the film's second major role of comic relief villain Gus Gorman, and due to his huge profile at the time, he was able to lock down an incredible $5 million payday.

Given that Reeve's total salary for all four Superman films is estimated to be around $8 million, Pryor did insanely well for himself here, especially as his presence in the film didn't bring the series as many new fans as producers hoped, with it grossing less than half of what Superman II did. Yikes.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.