On Kathleen Turner's bio page link below it says her salary for Body Heat was $30,000. (Look way down the page there.) Even though this was her first movie role I can't believe she got only that amount for the lead female role in a major movie. I would believe it if another '0' was added to the figure. Another example of information that was added to IMDb before checking its accuracy.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000678/bio
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Well shut my mouth! I did some further searching after not being able to find a reference to her salary before I made my first post. This website: http://www.sheilaomalley.com/?p=8570 states, in the third paragraph, that her salary for Body Heat was $30,000.
I was 30 years old when Body Heat came out, so I knew something about what it cost to live back then. My next door neighbors sold their three-bedroom home, located a mile from the ocean in Orange County, Calif., for $75,000 in 1979. That same home sold for $1,200,000 in 2005 with some upgrades but nothing drastic. So maybe my memory about the cost of living in 1980 has faded. It also shows that the producers, one of whom was George Lucas, had the upper hand when it came to negotiating an unknown actor's salary.
Op what planet are you on,what unknown actress is gonna get 300,000 in 1980/1 for a movie??1st of all turner stated in her book she received 30,000 dollars for the film so it is accurate info.I thought turner was very well paid for body heat considering she was basically a z list celeb at the time with little to no previous experience,bodyheat was her 1st film and it was 1980-30 grand was worth alot more back then.In her book,she said that after bodyheat,she had to go back to waitressing to make end meet.[thats how unfamous she was] Jamie lee curtis played the leading lady in halloween and only got 8,000 dollars for halloween in 1978[which was too a low budget]. Arnold Schwarzenegger got only 75,000 for terminator in 1984,[another low budget film].Sylvester stallone got 23,000 dollars for rocky in 1976 and before that he picked up 200 dollar and 700 dollar paycheques for previous films.All three films have had enermous success and continue to make the studios money to this day and all 3 actors have had enermous success in the box office since these films. Bottom line is that if you haven't got a name in hollywood like none of these stars had really before the films i mentioned,you ain't gonna get the big paycheques.The big money only comes when you become famous and can be a good box office draw. All the a-listers had to start somwehere,no unknown actor is gonna walk into the multi million paycheques in their early days.By the mid 80s turner was getting offers of 5 million dollars plus to do movies[i know this cos i read her biography].
shareWow I'm with Randy, those figures sound insanely low to me for all the actors you've listed. I know these were all their first time performances but even still, they were leading roles in major Hollywood movies. I would have expected their salaries to be at least hitting the six figure range.
Still, it's somewhat satisfying to know that I make more money than all of these A-list actors in their early roles heh heh.
no considering these sums of money were worth a lot more back then,for instance 8,000 dollars back in 78 was worth a lot more then as was 75,000 in 84 plus no these movies were not necessarily 'major Hollywood movies', Halloween for instance was a low budget movie that was a surprise hit and was not expected to become the massive classic it became.
shareThe budget of the movie was less than $600K. Her salary was about 5% of the budget; not so small when you put it in prospective. She was an unknown actress; this was a big break for her. She was probably happy to take the $30K.
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Shakespeare got only 23 pounds to write Hamlet.
But for Hamlet 2: Electric Boogaloo he received 200,000 pounds and a trip to Bermuda.
Go figure.
Incidentally, all copies of the latter were destroyed upon request when he died.
Considering the amount of clothes she DIDN'T have to wear in this film, I wonder what the average female lead porn star was making during this time frame?
shareThe budget of the movie was less than $600K.
I git the $600K figure from IMBD when I originally posted, but that info is no longer there. However, the budget for the original Star Wars was $11,000,000 (according to IMDB) and BH had no stars (Hurt was the biggest and he has was not A-List then), this movie broke out several actors. This was a low budget movie.
sharehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_Heat
Mind you can't always believe that, but $600 thousand like I said earlier, seems a little low to me, even back in 1981.
agreed
shareWell, with how competitive the film industry is, most actors would probably PAY $30,000 to get a major role like that. Yes it was low for a leading role that required so much nudity, but on the flip side the career benefits of that kind of exposure are invaluable. So as to whether she was underpaid, I guess the answer is yes and no.
shareThe AVERAGE salary in 1981 in the United States was $13,772. The average CAR price at that time was $7,500. So you have to look at it in perspective. Plus she was an unknown actress at the time who was actually waiting on tables in New York.
shareFaye Dunaway got (I think) $35,000 for "Bonnie & Clyde" in the late 60's, and negotiated giving $25,000 back in exchange for over-the-title billing. Sometimes, an unknown actor KNOWS when a role is offering them their big break. An exception would be Charles Grodin, who was offered "The Graduate" but balked at the tiny salary. (He now admits it was an enormous career mistake.)
share''An exception would be Charles Grodin, who was offered "The Graduate" but balked at the tiny salary. (He now admits it was an enormous career mistake.)''
I love how actors that turn down roles say that when the project becomes a big hit- it is a pretty inaccurate thing for them to say as had grodin played the part the film could have turned out very differently and not been a hit, often the success of a film can depend on the actor in the role.
I remember reading an article about Body Heat and Kathleen Turner when the film was in theaters.
Either they lied or she did because I specifically remember part of the article went exactly like this:
She was paid "not a dime" for the movie (I would've paid them!).
Sigourney Weaver got $35K for Alien. That's how these things tend to work for first roles that are leads or near-leads hence potential big breaks.
shareMacaulay Culkin only made $100k for Home Alone, but made $4.5 million for Home Alone 2.
shareDid she get residuals?
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