You may think Elijah Wood is set for life thanks to his iconic turn as Frodo in The Lord of the Rings , but he recently set the record straight that the movies weren’t actually that lucrative.
The actor, who is now 44, was a relative unknown when he was cast in the Fellowship of the Ring in 2001, so he didn’t end up with the kind of contract that would leave him set for life.
Wood opened up about the topic on the red carpet for the 2025 Texas Film Awards hosted by the Austin Film Society.
‘Because we weren’t making one movie and then renegotiating a contract for the next, it wasn’t the sort of lucrative scenario that you could sort of rest easy for the rest of your life,’ he told Business Insider.
The star, who was recently in the hit show Yellow Jackets, said that New Line Cinema ageeing to do three high-budget films before knowing how even the first one would perform at the box office was ‘a real gamble.’
In order to mitigate that risk, the actors were paid ‘not massive salaries.’
However, he was quick to clarify that he thought it was understandable on the part of the studio.
‘The benefit of that was that we were also signing up for something that was going to be a part of our lives forever,’ he continued.
The trilogy went on to rake in nearly $3billion (£2.3b) at the box office and make nearly the entirety of its cast into household names.
Wood himself has gone on to have an impressive career, helming projects with his production company SpectreVision as well as starring in a myriad of projects over the years, including Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Monkey.
Cate Blanchett, who played Galadriel in the films, has previously joked that she essentially got paid in ‘free sandwiches’ to be in the films.
A comment Wood said was’hilarious,’ and then clarified: ‘Statements like that are not made with any kind of ire. It’s such an honor to have been a part of those films and they represent some of the best experiences of my life.’
When asked about the specifics of his salary for the films, he said: ‘It doesn’t matter.’
However, several other Lord of the Rings stars have disclosed their salaries over the years, with Orlando Bloom, who played Legolas, saying in 2019 that he got $175,000 (£134,970) for the three movies, but called it the ‘greatest gift’ of his life.
Sean Astin, who played Samwise Gamgee, said he got about $250,000 (£192,815) for the films.
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