It’s Criminal How Little ‘Deadpool’ Director Got Paid When Ryan Reynolds Earned Millions for Playing Himself

Deadpool has been one of the most successful superhero franchises ever. After experiencing a negative reception in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds finally came up with the right portrayal in Deadpool in 2016.

Following that, two installments have been made, and the franchise has made billions of dollars, especially after Deadpool & Wolverine. However, although it might look like everyone associated with the franchise must have made millions, it’s not the case with the director of the original movie.

Tim Miller received a dime compared to Ryan Reynolds for Deadpool

According to Box Office Mojo, the original Deadpool movie was made within a production budget of $58 million, and the movie turned out to be a blockbuster hit, grossing over $782.6 million worldwide, which was even a surprise for the people associated with the film.

As per Celebrity Net Worth, Ryan Reynolds, who was also one of the producers of the movie, got around $2 million in salary. The actor was also coming off some box office failures like Green Lantern and R.I.P.D. at the time, which accounted for a comparatively low number.

However, director Tim Miller earned significantly less than Reynolds for directing the movie that eventually kicked off a blockbuster franchise. In a recent interview with Collider, Miller revealed,

You guys might not know, but it’s not really a profitable thing to be a first-time director in Hollywood, and I’ll tell you exactly. I got $225,000 to direct Deadpool. I know it sounds like a lot of money, but for two years of work, that’s not a ton of money. Not that I’m not grateful, I’m f*cking grateful, that’s the way it is because you’re supposed to when you’re a first-time director. My agent said ‘Dude, you make more on an episode of The Walking Dead!’

The director feels proud and fortunate enough to be one of the founding team members of such a popular franchise. However, he also feels that it would have been better if he also got a share of the business profits. Miller said,

I feel like every time I walk down the aisles out there on the floor of CCXP and I see all these Deadpool figurines, I think they wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t made that film. And I feel uniquely fortunate that I could be part of it. Then, then my second thought is, I wish my director deals had a piece of the merchandising so that I could get some money from all of that.

Following the success of Deadpool, Miller went on to direct and produce Terminator: Dark Fate and produce the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise along with TV shows like Love, Death & Robots, and Secret Level.

Ryan Reynolds earned more from Deadpool profits

Being the face of Deadpool, along with the executive producer, worked well for Reynolds. According to Celebrity Net Worth, the actor earned an extra $22 million from the profits of the movie. Besides this, Reynolds also gets a share from the merchandise sales.

In an interview with The New York Times, Reynolds revealed that he had to “let go of getting paid to do the movie just to put it back on the screen” and was also paying a cut of his own salary to his co-writers to have them on set. 

However, by the time the sequel came, the actor’s salary increased almost 10 times, and he reportedly made around $30-$40 million overall. According to Tim Carden on X, Reynolds made around $50 million in Deadpool & Wolverine.

Although the Deadpool franchise has been a huge hit, Reynolds has been facing constant criticism for just playing himself through his character because of the similarity of humor and tone between his real life and on-screen and also for his lack of variations.

In this regard, it might not fit well with his critics that the actor has made a fortune from just being himself on screen while his original director made almost an insignificant amount as compared to him.

All Deadpool movies are available to stream on Disney+.