Gal Gadot, Patty Jenkins paid $10 million to praise Wonder Woman release

Wonder Woman 1984 is coming out on HBO Max and in theaters simultaneously, the first of many Warner Bros. movies to do so. In exchange for their support, the movie’s director and star were compensated handsomely.

Warner Bros. sent Hollywood into a tizzy the other day when it announced that all of its 2021 movies — including Dune, The Suicide Squad, The Matrix 4 and more — will be released into theaters AND on streaming service HBO Max simultaneously.

Before that, the studio announced that Wonder Woman 1984 would be coming out on HBO Max and in theaters on the same day: Christmas Day. But there was a key difference in that case. According to The New York Times, before making that announcement, Warner Bros. approached the agencies representing Wonder Woman director and star Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot, hoping to get them “on board with the plan.” In reply, the agencies demanded that Jenkins and Gadot be paid what they would have been paid had the coronavirus not disrupted the movie industry over the past year and closed down theaters worldwide, and particularly in the US. After a “tense negotiation,” Warner Bros. agreed to pay Jenkins and Gadot over $10 million apiece.

When Warner Bros. announced that it would be treating all of its 2021 movies this way, things were very different. It didn’t tell any of the actors, directors, or agencies until around 90 minutes before revealing its plan to the world, which cheesed a lot of people off, with The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan giving the sound bite of the moment: “Some of our industry’s biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service.”

This situation is still very much in flux. Has Warner Bros. “killed cinema off for good,” as some melodramatic publications have put it? Somehow I doubt it; these movies are still coming to theaters, and only for 31 days; after that, the movies will only play in theaters as they finish their normal runs. This move will definitely disrupt the industry — most expect it to be permanent, whatever Warner Bros. says about only doing this for a year while the pandemic gets under control — but I expect it to find a new equilibrium.

That said, Warner Bros. probably could have handled the announcement more smoothly. It had to pay over $20 million to ensure that only two of the big names in its stable didn’t whine about the change of plans; surely it knew there would be blowback when it announced that 17 other movies would be released this way without telling anyone involved with those movies.

Like I said, the situation is evolving. Until we get the next development, what do you make of it? Are stars and directors just whinging about the new way Warner Bros. is doing things, or do they have a point? Will this kill off cinema or just change it?

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