“Every Studio Executive Said, Are You Crazy?”: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Risky Self-Bet Ended Up Awarding Him a $35,000,000 Payday

Arnold Schwarzenegger has been in the show business for more than four decades. This has made him smart in business, but not before his own trial-and-error experiences. The seven-time Mr. Olympia and legendary movie star has always been very calculated and good at business. As a result, he knew his way around the industry from the start. However, signing a movie sounds easy, but it certainly is not. These deals take time, thought, and a lot of negotiation. However, there are some incidents where actors sign movies for unexpected matters and take a risk, and this is exactly what happened with Arnold Schwarzenegger when he signed up for the film ‘Twins’, and did not want any salary for it.

He took a big chance as a new actor and signed the 1988 comedy without any hope of it becoming a blockbuster. He shared the story with Tim Ferriss in his podcast on the launch of Arnold’s book, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life.

Arnold Schwarzenegger took a chance with a comedy movie

Tim Ferriss asked him about the movie ‘Twins’, and how he decided to sign it without knowing whether it would be a blockbuster at the box office. Arnie owned a couple of real estate properties before he started his career in the movies. Thanks to his good business sense he knew that bodybuilding might give him the glory but might not give him a proper salary, due to which he started investing in real estate and had a good backup financially. After that, when Arnold came into the movies, he started earning lump sum amounts of money, but not without taking huge bets. 

Ferriss asked the Austrian Oak, “Could you speak to Twins and what that looked like with that particular film to bet on yourself?” The former governor of California answered that comedy movies were not one of his main goals; however, as he started doing continuous action movies, he realized that he had a hunger for more. After a lot of convincing the directors and his staff about doing a comedy movie after his titular role as an action hero, he finally formed a partnership with Danny DeVito and Evan Reitman. Arnold made everyone take a huge risk by doing a comedy movie, but ultimately the risk paid off.

He narrated how he convinced them and said, “Just give us a backend; you don’t have to pay us any salary whatsoever. If the production costs 16 and a half million dollars, that’s all you use. Not one penny more for us.” He also said that this was a complete bet on his career: “Every studio executive said, are you crazy?”. If the movie tanks, then they all face the losses, but if it becomes a blockbuster, all of them would be able to get the fruits of it. “All we want is you give us 37.5 percent of ownership of the movie, and we all go to the bank together,” Arnie said. 

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His calculated bet was a huge success, and the 1988 movie ultimately made $128 million domestically and $250 million worldwide, with genius direction and everyone’s dedication. Arnold also pointed out the most astonishing thing, which was that one comedy movie made more money than all of his action movies combined.

Ultimately, by taking the bet on wanting nothing for the comedy movie, Arnold earned $35,000,000 after it became a blockbuster. What do you think about this incredible incident? Tell us your ideas in the comments below.

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