Now here’s a flex: just how much money Arnold Schwarzenegger made on 1988 comedy “Twins.” The film, which co-starred Danny DeVito as Schwarzenegger’s fraternal twin brother, turned out to be the actor’s biggest payday of his career.
Schwarzenegger said during a recent appearance on “Watch What Happens Live” (in the below video) that, instead of not taking much of a salary for his work on the film, he opted for a deal for a percentage of its box office gross. The feature ended up making $216 million worldwide in theaters, and continued to profit with a home video release.
“Well, number one was ‘Twins,’ because we got no money for the salary but ownership with a piece of the backend,” Schwarzenegger said of his biggest paycheck ever. “It was fantastic. We went all the way to the bank with that.”
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It turns out, Schwarzenegger made more than $40 million on the film. “It was more than that. It was more than any movie I ever made,” he said.
The backend deal came to be after the studio had doubts about action star Schwarzenegger leading a comedy. “If we don’t take any salaries, we can shoot the movie for $16.5 million. We worked out a deal where we got 40 percent of the backend of the movie,” he said. “It happened to be the best deal we’ve ever made.”
And “Twins” almost spurred a franchise due to its massive success: Schwarzenegger said that sequel “Triplets” almost added Eddie Murphy to the cast. However, original director Ivan Reitman “passed away before we wanted to start shooting.” Schwarzenegger had said in 2017 that the script for “Triplets” was “almost written” at the time.
Schwarzenegger can now be seen in the second season of “FUBAR” alongside Oscar nominee Monica Barbaro, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Fortune Feimster. Schwarzenegger also might collaborate with his real-life son Patrick Schwarzenegger for an action film.
Patrick told The Hollywood Reporter that he can’t wait to work with his father on-screen. “I mean, that’s the goal down the road is to do those types of things. I’d love to do that, if it was the right thing,” he said. “I’ve talked to my dad about it, and I’ve told him I’d love to do that if it was the right thing. I’ve never wanted to, but now I feel like I have some credits under my belt, and that I’ve had some work, and I feel like I’ve gotten to the point where I would feel comfortable working with him.”
