Arnold Schwarzenegger just revealed which of his movies earned him the biggest paycheck, and believe it or not, it was Twins. During an interview with Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live, Schwarzenegger explained that he and his co-star Danny DeVito did not take salaries on the movie, but instead accepted a share of the film’s profits later after its release. Schwarzenegger wouldn’t say exactly how much money he made from this one film, but confirmed that it was more than $40 million at least. He also mentioned the scrapped plans for a Twins sequel that would have been called Triplets, and would have added Eddie Murphy as the third sibling.
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“It was Twins, because we got no money, no salary, but with ownership — a piece of the back-end — it was fantastic, yes. We went all the way to the bank with that one,” Schwarzenegger said. Cohen began throwing out numbers to guess how much money Schwarzenneger had actually made. He said it was “much more” than $20 million, adding, “Come on now.” However, he after confirming it was more than $40 million, he declined to confirm the exact figure. “Really, it was more than any movie I’ve ever made, let’s just put it this way,” he said.
As for the potential for a Twins 2, Schwarzenneger said, “The sequel would have been called Triplets, and it was not done because the director, Ivan Reitman, passed away just before we wanted to start shooting the movie.” He also confirmed that the third sibling introduced in that movie would have been played by Murphy, though at one point, Murphy backed out of the project and was replaced by Tracy Morgan.
Schwarzenneger first revealed his pay scheme from Twins in 2016 during a podcast interview with Graham Bensinger, who typically reports on sports more than entertainment. Back then, he said that Universal Pictures was hesitant to cast him in a comedy because he was best known for action movies, and they doubted his ability to pull it off. The only way the movie could be made is if he accepted back-end profits rather than a salary. He said that DeVito and Reitman both accepted similar deals, and all three benefited greatly. Schwarzenegger said that taking that risk was the best decision of his life.
Twins earned $216 million against an $18 million production budget, not to mention any profits it may have made from home release, licensing, and syndication. Sequel plans were first announced in 2012, and after years of development, it was finally scheduled to begin filming in January of 2022. Sadly, Reitman passed away in February of 2022, and since then, Schwarzenegger has said that the sequel will not be made, even with a different director.
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Image courtesy of Warner
