Joaquin Phoenix Will Reportedly Receive a Bigger Payday for Joker 2

It was recently announced that the sequel to the 2019 hit Joker is officially in development with Joaquin Phoenix expected to reprise his Oscar-winning role and Todd Phillips back in the director's chair. The news delighted a lot of fans who have been curious to see if they will make a follow-up on Arthur Fleck's descent into the iconic villain. Now, in addition to reprising the role, it looks like Phoenix will also receive a bigger payday.

Variety recently published an article where they reported about the actors' salaries in the major studio films that they're starring in. One of them is Phoenix where they revealed that the Oscar winner will receive a $20 million payday for reprising his role. It is a huge increase from the $4.5 million that he received when he starred in the first film.

The article also revealed the payday of the other actors who are starring in comic book movies such as Dwayne Johnson in Black Adam, who is commanding a $22.5 million salary in addition to producing fees and social media promotions, Tom Hardy ($20 million for Venom 3), and Jason Momoa ($15 million for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom).

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However, none of these actors are topping Tom Cruise, who is expected to receive around $100 million for Top Gun: Maverick from the ticket sales, his salary, and the percentage that he'll have from the home video and streaming revenues. He is followed on the list by Will Smith, who is receiving $35 million for his work on Emancipation.

Other notable stars that the outlet mentioned in their report are Leonardo DiCaprio ($30 million for Killers of the Flower Moon), Chris Hemsworth ($20 million for Extraction 2), Chris Pine ($13 million for Star Trek 4), Millie Bobby Brown ($10 million for Enola Holmes 2), and many more.

It is interesting to hear that Phoenix will have a huge increase for his payday on the sequel. However, considering that the first one earned more than $1 billion and he won an Oscar for the role, it's also not surprising that he managed to negotiate a bigger payday for his return and a lot of us might agree that he deserves it.

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Now, it's just the matter of whether the sequel will be as great and as successful as the first film. Hopefully, that will be the case.

Warner Bros. has not set a release window yet for Joker 2.