Scarlett Johansson is finally getting her own Black Widow solo movie, and she is getting a cool $15 million to do it.
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Johansson will be getting a salary of $15 million for the upcoming Black Widow film, which puts her at the same pay level of Chris Evans (Captain America) and Chris Hemsworth (Thor) in Avengers: Infinity War (via THR). Johansson has played the part of Natasha Romanov for six films now in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including Iron Man 2, Avengers, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, and Avengers: Infinity War. She will also reprise the role in Avengers 4.
While numerous sources confirmed the $15 million number to THR, a Marvel spokesperson told them “Marvel Studios disputes the accuracy of these numbers, and as a matter of policy, we never publicly disclose salaries or deal terms.”
Assuming it’s true, there are a few takeaways from this. The first is that it should have come sooner, as she basically co-headlined Captain America: Winter Soldier and yet she didn’t make what Evans did on the film, which was $15 million. The second thing though is that as far as solo films go, this is a big step for Marvel. On first solo ventures, Marvel doesn’t typically go above $5 million. To put it into perspective, Robert Downey Jr. received $500,000 for his first time as Iron Man, and Chadwick Boseman brought in around $2 million for Black Panther. Brie Larson is at the high end of that bracket at $5 million for Captain Marvel, but she also signed a seven-picture deal.
As for Black Widow, the Russo Brothers couldn’t be happier that Natasha’s past is finally being explored to a greater degree, something Joe touched on in an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.
“Yeah, we’re very happy for that. I mean it’s such a rich and interesting character,” Joe Russo said. “There’s so much to explore with a character whose history was as a villain, and you know, Scarlett does such a good job of playing that character and people are so used to that character that you forget the character’s history, and so there’s a lot of compelling stories to tell about someone who has a dark past.”
The Black Widow movie will be directed by Cate Shortland and will be written by Jac Schaeffer. The movie is reported to be a prequel set before the events of Marvel’s Avengers but currently has no release date.
Shortland is known best for projects like Somersault, Lore, and her most recent work in Berlin Syndrome. That film is a horror-like thriller, and while we don’t expect Black Widow to carry all of that over (especially Berlin Syndrome’s basic premise), it does give you a sense of how Shortland can build tension amidst picturesque backdrops. If she can bring that to the world of Black Widow, this could be a great match.
