Sure, Sony decided to reboot the Spider-Man franchise because Tobey Maguire was getting a little old, Sam Raimi was fighting with the studio to make an actually good movie this time, and a million other reasons. But let's be frank here: the studio is also going to save a ton of money by starting fresh with up-and-comers, and those savings most definitely extend over to the newly picked leading man Andrew Garfield. Deadline Hollywood is hearing that Garfield will be paid $500,000 for the first film, $1 million for the second and $2 million for the third-- provided those second two happen, of course. That's a very, very small fraction of the $16 million Maguire was reportedly paid for Spider-Man 3, and the $20 million he was supposed to get for Spider-Man 4.
Garfield is a very new star, of course, and $500,000 is a good salary no matter how you look at it. But if the new Spider-Man is an enormous hit and he's stuck in a contract that will give him just another $1 million for a sequel that would be a guaranteed hit, I wouldn't blame him for getting a little resentful. I don't know what the Twilight kids did to negotiate their mammoth Breaking Dawn salaries, but Garfield may find himself wishing for some of that power as the Spider-Man franchise goes forward.
