In less than a month, the Marvel Cinematic Universe will bring forth another superhero origin story: Captain Marvel, starring Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers. It marks the first female-led MCU film and looks to be a crucial precursor to Avengers: Endgame. Larson is reportedly making $5 million for Captain Marvel, from a $150 million budget that is certainly expected to be one of the year’s biggest blockbusters.
Yes, girl! Brie Larson’s paycheck tops the $500,000 Robert Downey Jr. received for his first Iron Man film and Chadwick Boseman’s $2 million for Black Panther, per The Hollywood Reporter. However, she won’t be making more than Scarlett Johansson for her upcoming solo Black Widow movie, which she is reportedly getting $15 million for. Johansson’s earnings compare to Chris Evans’ for Captain America: Civil War and Chris Hemsworth’s for Thor: Ragnarok, who were also paid $15 million.
For the 29-year-old actress’ first outing as the hero, Brie Larson is certainly getting a fair wage for starring as the hero. For the DC Extended Universe's first female-led origin story, 2017’s Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot was reportedly only paid $300,000, though after the incredible $822 million worldwide success of that movie, she likely took home some sweet bonuses and was said to be renegotiating her base salary for Wonder Woman 1984.
Brie Larson is previously best known for her 2015 Best Actress Oscar-winning performance in the emotional drama Room, although she has also starred in Kong: Skull Island, Short Term 12 and The Spectacular Now. The actress transformed her body for the role, working four hours a day in the gym with a personal trainer to achieve the power to literally push a Jeep up a hill, dead-lift 225 pounds and hip-thrust 400 pounds.
Captain Marvel will follow the heroine in the ‘90s as she lands on Earth with some memory loss about her past and teams up a younger Nick Fury (played by Samuel L. Jackson) and Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) as the planet becomes caught in the middle of a galactic war between the Skrulls and Kree. The movie also stars Crazy Rich Asians’ Gemma Chan as Minn-Erva, Lee Pace as Ronan, Ben Mendelsohn as Talos, Lashana Lynch as Maria Rambeau and Jude Law as the still-to-be-officially-identified commander of Starforce.
Early tracking has Captain Marvel scoring $140 million during its opening weekend, with the potential to break records for March currently held by Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast and Warner Bros' Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The release will undoubtedly win the weekend, as no other major movie has dared to go head-to-head with Captain Marvel’s opening day.
Eyes are especially on Captain Marvel’s release because it is said to have an important connection to Avengers: Endgame, coming less than two months later and also starring Brie Larson with the rest of the broken-hearted Avengers. Captain Marvel hits theaters on March 8.
