Netflix
Alex Honnold apparently didn’t get paid much for his Netflix stunt.
On Saturday night, Honnold captivated the world when he climbed the Taipei 101 building in Taiwan on Netflix without the use of harnesses.
ALEX HONNOLD AFTER COMPLETING HIS FREE SOLO OF TAIPEI 101: “Sick.”
The 101 story climb took 1 hour and 35 minutes #SkyscraperLIVE pic.twitter.com/TIzeRqiUcM
— Netflix (@netflix) January 25, 2026
While speaking with the NY Times, Honnold revealed that his agent wasn’t happy with pay he was getting from Netflix, but he still did it because he just wanted to climb the building.
Via NY Times
It’s less than my agent aspired to. I mean, I would do it for free. If there was no TV program and the building gave me permission to go do the thing, I would do the thing because I know I can, and it’d be amazing. I mean, just sitting by yourself on the very top of the spire is insane. And so, you know, if there wasn’t the whole spectacle around it, and I just had the opportunity to go do it by myself, I’d be fine with that. I would do that, but in this case, there is a spectacle. I’m not getting paid to climb the building. I’m getting paid for the spectacle. I’m climbing the building for free
The Times went on to report that Honnold got paid around mid-six figures for the stunt.
Actually, if you put it in the context of mainstream sports, it’s an embarrassingly small amount. You know, Major League Baseball players get like $170 million contracts. Like, someone you haven’t even heard of and that nobody cares about.
[Honnold will be paid in the mid-six figures for the climb, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement.]
Hopefully Netflix gives Honnold a bonus for all the attention his climb got on social media.