If there is one thing I admire about Robert Downey Jr. it’s his ability to realize he’s fallen face first into a cash cow and he needs to latch onto that thing’s udder and milk that motherfucker for all it’s worth. You see so many other actors leave behind once-in-a-lifetime roles because they’re tired of playing them, but not RDJ. He’s sticking with his Iron Man character because Iron Man is making him FILTHY RICH.
Outside of the money, Tony Stark has to be a fun character to play. It’s not like Downey Jr. continues to reprise the role of a deranged psychopath (like, say, The Joker) year after year, where it could potentially fuck him up psychologically. He’s playing a rich, quick-witted narcissist who also happens to be a hero. I can’t see the downside to any lasting affects that might have on him personally.
Anyway, according to a site called Bleeding Cool, Robert Downey Jr. is about to have a big payday for playing Tony Stark in Avengers: Infinity War Part One and Avengers: Infinity War Part Two. How big, ya ask? Try $200,000,000 big.
Per Bleeding Cool:
In huddled conversation with very well sourced comic book film insiders in New York bars last night, before New York Comic Con, there was one big topic of conversation. That the next two Avengers films, Infinity War Part One and Two, will have a combined production budget of one billion dollars.
And of that, the above the line costs, that paid to the screenwriter, director, producers and principal actors will be a cool four hundred million dollars alone.
And of the actor budget, Robert Downey Jr gets half.
Keep milking, Robert my boy. Keep milking till there is nothing left. Take everything. Every. Last. Drop.
[H/T UPROXX via Bleeding Cool]