Arnold Schwarzenegger is arguably the biggest action movie star of all time. “The Terminator.” “Predator.” “Commando.” “Total Recall.” “True Lies.” “The Expendables” trilogy. His hit list goes on and on.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, Arnold was a blockbuster movie machine, pumping out hit after hit. He was also one of the first actors in Hollywood to earn truly massive paychecks. After being paid just $12,000 to star in 1969’s “Hercules in New York,” Arnold eventually became the king of the $20-40 million single-movie paycheck. His movies have grossed billions of dollars at the worldwide box office, and he has earned hundreds of millions through upfront salaries and backend profit participation.
Here’s a pop quiz: Out of all of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s massive blockbuster movies, can you guess which one generated one of the largest – and easily the most unexpected – paydays of his entire career?
“Terminator 2”? Nope.
“True Lies”? It has to be “True Lies,” right? Written and directed by James Cameron, co-starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Tom Arnold?!
Wrong.
“Last Action Hero”?
Very incorrect.
Maybe “Batman & Robin”?
You are Freeze-ing cold.
The actual answer is a movie almost nobody would guess – a relatively inexpensive comedy in which Arnold took essentially no guaranteed salary at all. Instead, he made one of the smartest financial bets of his career…
Arnold Schwarzenegger / AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Real Estate Millionaire
After winning the Mr. Universe competition three years in a row – four if you count his year as an amateur – Arnold packed up his belongings and moved from the tiny town of Thal, Austria, to Los Angeles.
The year was 1970, and Arnold quickly found a home at Gold’s Gym in Venice Beach, the Mecca of Bodybuilding, alongside his future “Pumping Iron” co-star Lou Ferrigno.
Arnold’s dream was to launch a full-time acting career. But he wasn’t the typical broke aspiring actor arriving in Hollywood. In fact, he came to America with around $27,000 that he had saved from European bodybuilding championships, appearances, and endorsements.
That’s the equivalent of roughly $230,000 today.
While his acting career was still a long way from taking off, Arnold decided to put that money to work. In his view, it made little sense to keep paying rent when he could own the building.
So that’s what he did.
His first apartment building contained four units and cost $214,000. A year later, he sold it for $360,000.
Arnold immediately rolled his profits into a 12-unit building, followed by a 36-unit building, followed by a 100-unit building. Each time he sold a property, he reinvested the proceeds into something larger.
By the time he was 25 years old – nearly a decade before he became an instantly recognizable movie star – Arnold Schwarzenegger was already a real estate millionaire.
That financial independence actually helped his acting career. Arnold didn’t have to accept every bad role simply to pay his bills. He could afford to be patient and wait for opportunities he believed could turn him into a star.
Movie Millionaire
Eventually, those roles started arriving.
In 1982, Arnold earned $250,000 to star in “Conan the Barbarian.” A few years later, he made $360,000 for “Conan the Destroyer.”
Also in 1984, Arnold agreed to take a substantial pay cut to star in a little movie called “The Terminator.” As crazy as it sounds today, the studio had considered O.J. Simpson for the title role, but director James Cameron didn’t think O.J. would be believable as a killer.
Arnold signed on for just $75,000.
As we all know now, “The Terminator” became a massive hit. The film earned roughly $80 million worldwide and transformed Arnold Schwarzenegger into a movie superstar.
The paychecks escalated quickly from there.
Arnold earned $2 million for 1985’s “Commando,” $3.5 million for 1987’s “Predator,” and $8 million for 1988’s “Red Heat.”
By the late 1990s and early 2000s, Arnold was routinely commanding enormous salaries. In 2003, he earned approximately $30 million to appear in “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.” Based on his amount of screen time, that worked out to roughly $4,000 per second.
But none of those giant salaries produced his biggest movie payday.
That distinction came down to a chance meeting at a ski resort in Aspen – and one extremely smart business decision.
Arnold Schwarzenegger / Raphael Dias/Getty Images
Biggest Career Payday
At some point in the mid-1980s, while vacationing in Aspen, Arnold ran into director Ivan Reitman.
Reitman was fresh off the blockbuster success of “Ghostbusters” and was looking for another project. One night after the two had some drinks, Arnold told Ivan that he wanted to star in his next big comedy.
Considering Arnold was the most famous action star on the planet, the comedy-minded Reitman was understandably skeptical. At first, he didn’t even think Arnold was serious.
After spending a few nights together at Aspen bars, Ivan’s attitude began to change. He was impressed by how gentle and funny the muscle-bound Austrian was in real life. Arnold also appeared to possess a natural instinct for comedy.
By the end of the vacation, the two agreed that when they returned to Hollywood, they would find a project to make together.
Back in Los Angeles, Ivan sent Arnold several scripts. The one Arnold loved most was called “The Experiment.”
The story revolved around two wildly different twins who had been separated at birth after a secret genetics experiment. Studio executives became nervous about the optics of a German-speaking actor starring in a movie about human genetic experimentation called “The Experiment.” Fair enough. So the title was changed to:
Twins
When it came time to cast the other twin – someone who would be Arnold’s complete physical opposite – Arnold suggested Danny DeVito.
Ivan, Arnold, and Danny met at a restaurant in Los Angeles to discuss the project. Everything clicked. According to the story Arnold has told over the years, the three essentially agreed to make the movie together right there in the restaurant.
Then came the money.
The studio approached Arnold, who was already one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, and asked what it would cost to secure his services. Executives were probably preparing themselves for a demand of $10 million or perhaps $15 million.
Arnold’s answer?
Nothing
Instead, he wanted backend ownership.
Arnold proposed that he, Danny, and Ivan take essentially no meaningful salary upfront. Instead, the three would collectively own a huge piece of the movie.
Arnold later explained the thinking this way:
“Just give me backend. Let me, Danny, Ivan and me own 45% of the movie as a package. Never take one dollar up front.“
It seems obvious in retrospect, but it was an enormous gamble. The arrangement meant the studio did not have to write massive checks to the movie’s star, co-star, and director before production even began. That helped keep the entire production budget below $20 million. If the movie failed, Arnold, Danny, and Ivan would have worked for essentially nothing. If it succeeded, they owned a gigantic piece of the upside.
Arnold later explained:
“I felt, why would someone have to pay when they didn’t know for sure if the movie was gonna work out. I take the risk, you take the risk. Let’s all take the risk and let’s all go to work.“
It worked. “Twins” was a smash hit.
The movie eventually grossed more than $216 million worldwide at the theatrical box office alone – more than ten times its production budget. But the truly brilliant part was that the deal wasn’t limited to a normal box-office bonus.
According to Arnold, the three men participated in essentially everything the movie generated: theatrical revenue, television rights, cable, home video, and other exploitation. Arnold has described the result very plainly:
“The movie went through the roof internationally and domestically. I think we all made more money on that movie than on anything we’ve ever done, even though I had salaries of $30 million dollars on some movies… This was the biggest payday because we owned a percentage of EVERYTHING. TV rights, cable rights, merchandising… We owned that money and made a fortune.“
So How Much Did They Make?
Below is a breakdown of how much Arnold, Danny and Ivan likely each made off “Twins”:
- Worldwide box office gross: $216 million
→ Arnold’s 15% cut: ~$32 million
- Home video/DVD: estimated $100 million over 35+ years
→ Arnold’s cut: ~$15 million
- Television licensing, cable, syndication: ~$80 million
→ Arnold’s cut: ~$12 million
- Merchandising/ancillary: ~$7–10 million
→ Arnold’s cut: ~$1 million
- Total backend estimate: ~$60 million
After adjusting for inflation, earning $60 million in the late 1980s is the same as making around $170 million today. That would put the “Twins” payday among the largest acting paychecks in Hollywood history.
So what’s the lesson?
Arnold probably explained it best:
“It was one of those typical examples, that when you’re not that money hungry – just doing something for the money – then things work out really well. Sometimes much better, because it’s your passion for the project, it’s your interest in the project… It creates a whole different relationship with the studio and your workers around you. Everyone who worked on the movie got more money than we got! Everyone was in a good mood, the movie turned out fantastic.“
But believe it or not, even that probably wasn’t Arnold Schwarzenegger’s BIGGEST single-movie payday.
That distinction appears to belong to 2003’s “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.” Thanks to one of the most aggressive star contracts in Hollywood history – a $29.25 million guaranteed salary, a 20% gross participation deal, enormous perks, and even a $1.6 million-per-day penalty if production ran long – we estimate Arnold ultimately earned around $110 million from “T3.” Adjusted for inflation, that’s roughly $180 million today. You can read the full story here: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Insane “Terminator 3” Contract.
What Happened To “Triplets”?
For years, Arnold, Danny, and Ivan tried to turn “Twins” into a sequel called “Triplets.”
The concept would have revealed that Julius and Vincent had another long-lost brother. Eddie Murphy was originally discussed for the role, and later versions of the project had Tracy Morgan attached.
By 2021, the sequel appeared to be moving forward with Schwarzenegger, DeVito, Morgan, and Reitman. But Ivan Reitman died in February 2022 at the age of 75.
The project subsequently fell apart. Schwarzenegger confirmed in 2023 that “Triplets” was no longer moving forward.
That doesn’t necessarily mean we’ve seen the last of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito together. The two remain close friends, and both have continued to express interest in finding another movie that would reunite them.
Whether that ever happens remains to be seen. But even if “Twins” never gets a sequel, the original already delivered one incredible Hollywood ending: Arnold Schwarzenegger agreed to star in a movie for essentially no guaranteed salary – and it apparently turned into the biggest acting payday of his life.
