In 2025, Deadpool has become a household name. The aptly titled Deadpool and Wolverine brought the Merc With A Mouth to the masses despite assaulting people's senses with gratuitous violence and vulgar language. It hauled in more than a billion at the box office and continues to be streamed in homes across the globe.
The franchise's origins, however, are much humbler. Cast and crew accepted low salaries to get the first movie made; Tim Miller was one of them. The director recently revealed his salary amounted to a little over two hundred thousand for his duties. Most director salaries can be in the millions, showing the discrepancy.
What's unfair but simply a part of business is the movie made $782 million at the box office, and Miller didn't see a cent beyond his salary. Miller couldn't have done anything differently to get a bigger piece of the pie, although he mentioned that merchandising would've proved beneficial. The Deadpool (2016) director pointed out the merchandising aspect during a panel at CCXP 2024 in Sao Paolo, Brazil.
Tim Miller wasn't the only member of the Deadpool crew to accept a small salary. Ryan Reynolds also took a proverbial pay cut to get the movie made. He didn't make anything from acting in it.
When the budget came up, there wasn't enough money to keep writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick on set. Reynolds gave up the little money left in the budget for his salary so that they could stay on board. His original salary was reportedly $2 million. Of course, that number dwindled as costs to get the movie made increased.
The silver lining is Deadpool (2016) proved that handing out exorbitant salaries doesn't always result in great movies. Miller, Reese, Wernick, Reynolds, and everyone else at the helm produced one of the best comic book movies without millions of dollars in their pockets. That's not an indication of their deservedness—simply a sign that entertainment professionals can get movies made without blowing budgets wide open.
If anything, the crew deserved more compensation for their efforts. The $700 million profit warranted bonuses, but the profit margin is why studios invest. They never know what the return will be, specifically with risky projects. Never knowing is a substantial gamble, considering the money at stake. The studio accepts the outcome regardless of how it turns out, and the terms don't change simply because the box office total surpassed initial projections. That was the case with Deadpool (2016), and fans can't be upset with 20th Century Fox for taking that profit and putting it to good use—more movies.
Deadpool (2016), Deadpool 2, and Deadpool and Wolverine are all currently streaming on Disney Plus.