You Won't Believe How Little Orlando Bloom Made in LoTR
It's no secret that bankable actors get obscenely high pay for their work in successful movies, as studios realize using popular names in productions is a marketing tactic that can net them way more money than they pay their cast.
Robert Downey Jr. was given a $40 million salary for his role in Captain America: Civil War; Johnny Depp was paid $35 million to appear in the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film. Some actors have amassed over six figures when accounting for incentives, making their fame a lucrative commodity.
What's far more interesting is seeing how little some now-famous actors made in their earliest roles.
Take for instance Orlando Bloom, one of the many emerging stars from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy of the early 2000s. The series in its entirety earned over $1 billion over three films from 2001 to 2003, the final of which swept the Oscars with eleven wins on eleven nominations at the 2004 Academy Awards.
Despite the massive critical and financial win for New Line Cinema, Bloom was only paid $175,000 for his role as Legolas in The Fellowship of the Ring – the first installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Bloom in 2001 wasn't the massively popular Hollywood star he is now. Until then, he only had one film credit and a few television appearances, along with a background role in 2001's Black Hawk Down. Actors need to start somewhere, and their early salaries are a fraction of what they earn in their peak.
It was a great move by Bloom to link himself to the successful Lord of the Rings franchise, as his acting career immediately took off. He was able to negotiate his contract for the next two films and earned a leading role in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise that began in 2003 – a role that's helped get his net worth deep into eight figures. Since then, he's had starring roles in 2005's Kingdom of Heaven, 2011's The Three Musketeers, and several other projects while being considered one of the biggest heartthrobs in cinema.
Bloom understands the effect Lord of the Rings had on his career, telling Howard Stern he'd play Legolas again for even less money.
Given his success in the decade following Lord of the Rings, he's been able to pick and choose which projects he works on rather than pumping out a few movies per year. His next two projects are slated for release in 2023: Wizards! alongside Pete Davidson and Gran Turismo with David Harbour.