When Arnold Schwarzenegger moved from his native Austria in the United States, it seemed absolutely that nothing could prevent him from becoming the polymathe he would be. Man had a supernatural will to succeed, and not only as a bodybuilder. To claim that the title of Mr. Olympia seven times was not enough for Arnie, who had nothing less than the domination of the world in mind.
After having made his cinema debut in one of the least classified films of all time in 1970, Schwarzenegger slowly built his acting career, spending most of the 1980s in competition with Sylvester Stallone to become the largest action star in the world. He also did a very good job. “Conan the Barbarian”, “The Terminator”, “Commando”, “Raw Deal”, “Predator” – These are some of the best and most successful action films of all time, becoming emblematic of the Archetypal action style and transforming the hero of action archetypal.
Of course, this meant that the Austrian actor had trouble doing a lot of others, despite his ambitions to get out of his action character and pursue other genres. When you have superstar dreams, becoming the largest action star in the world is simply not enough. Before he could embark on a political career and marry a Kennedy, however, Arnie wanted to prove that he had the chops to face a successful comedy as part of his global assault on American culture. But it turned out to be extremely difficult. It was only thanks to a huge bet that he finally managed to make his comedy debut, and it turns out that Gamble allowed the actor a huge pay check. In fact, this led to the largest pay check that Arnold has ever received throughout his career.
Arnold Schwarzenegger had to fight to play in a comedy
In his appearance “Actors on Actors” alongside Son and the star of “The White Lotus” Patrick Schwarzenegger, the Austrian oak recalled how many problems he had tried to get out of his character from the star of the action in the late 80s. “Each time I said, or someone said to the director of the studio:” I would like to launch Schwarzenegger ” Comedy? Are you crazy? Do you know how much money we earn with him as an action star? “, The more this guy was killed on a screen, the more we win. Reitman, who obviously saw the comic potential in Schwarzenegger.
Reitman wanted the actor of “Twins” from 1988, his comedy Buddy in which Schwarzenegger would play Julius, the fraternal twin of Vincent (Danny Devito). The result of a genetic experience, the pair is separated at birth before reconnecting in adulthood. At that time, however, their appearances are not the only thing that separates them. Having grown up in an orphanage in Los Angeles before escaping to do so by himself, Vincent becomes a street criminal, while Julius is raised by one of the scientists involved in the original experience, becoming a strong, intelligent but naive counterpart to his distant brother. The film follows Julius as he goes to the to reconnect with his mother and brother, the incompatible pair entering all kinds of Hijinks.
As you can imagine, Universal naturally hesitated to throw Arnie like Julius. Thus, in order to convince the studio that the actor could go to comedy, Reitman, Schwarzenegger and Devito have all agreed to give up a salary in exchange for 40% of the backend profits of the film. After “Twins” became a Smash Surprise at the box office, he turned out to be the best decision that all were ever made.
The twins remain the biggest salary of Arnold Schwarzenegger
As Arnold Schwarzenegger remembered during his appearance of “actors on the actors”, it was his idea for him, his co-star and his director not to have any salary on the “twins”. After accepting, the trio went to Universal with the proposal. As Arnie said, “we all take the risk, and you have the greater property because you have paid it, you get 60%, we get 40%.” This 40% turned out to be a lot of money. “Twins” won $ 216 million with a budget of 15 million dollars, which means that he made his budget 14 times and made Ivan Reitman, Danny Devito, Schwarzenegger and Universal a lot of money. How much? Well, in the case of Arnie, he remains his greatest salary to date, even after almost three decades.
In 2025, Schwarzenegger spoke to Andy Cohen during an appearance on “Watch What Happens Live” (via Variety), revealing that “Twins” was the most profitable film of his career – at least for him personally. The film allowed the star of $ 40 million thanks to the bet that he and his friends took. “The number one was” twins “because we did not have any money for the salary but the property with a piece from the back,” he said. “It was fantastic. We went to the bank with that.” When asked if he had won more than $ 40 million, the actor replied: “It was more than that. It was more than any movie I ever made.”
After that, Schwarzenegger re -registed with Reitman for “Kindergarten Cop” of the 1990s, another family classic which proved that “the twins” was not a stroke of luck. Since then, Arnie has been able to face almost any genre he loves, offering an even more family price with “Jingle All The Way”, which has become one of the best Christmas films of all time. He would also become governor of California, of course, but at that time, nothing he had done seemed quite surprising.
