Brad Pitt Turned Down A $20 Million Payday To Star In A Sequel To One Of His Biggest Films

Highlights

  • Brad Pitt rejected the chance to star in a Mr. and Mrs. Smith sequel.
  • The original Mr. and Mrs. Smith movie was once a major hit, grossing $487.3 million worldwide.
  • Due to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's messy divorce, a Mr. and Mrs. Smith sequel is unlikely to ever occur.

Brad Pitt is not hurting for money. The actor may have only gotten paid a measly $6K for his breakout efficiency in Thelma and Louise (1991), but he's greater than made up for it over the past three many years. He's remained one of probably the most liked and bankable film stars of the fashionable era.

Brad Pitt's wage in line with movie fluctuates depending at the funds and the creative input that he has (he often takes pay cuts on films he produces), however there's one be offering that towers above the remainder. A salary so large that it could have ranked amongst his biggest ever. The factor is, he turned it down. Let's wreck down why.

Brad Pitt Refused To Star In Mr. And Mrs. Smith 2 Because He Didn't Like The Story

Brad Pitt is notoriously choosy when it comes to film roles, which is why his involvement in a challenge generally leads to critical and monetary luck. Mr. And Mrs. Smith (2005) was once a prime instance of Pitt's star power, and the action-fueled romantic comedy went on to gross $487.3 million international. It remains one of the biggest hits in each Pitt and Angelina Jolie's careers.

Brad Pitt's Biggest Films

Worldwide Box Office (According To IMDb)

World War Z (2013)

$540.4 Million

Troy (2004)

$497.4 Million

Mr. And Mrs. Smith (2005)

$487.3 Million

Ocean's Eleven (2001)

$450.7 Million

It makes overall sense why twentieth Century Fox sought after to return to the effectively and convey a sequel, particularly given that Pitt and Jolie had grow to be Hollywood's hottest couple right through the making of the primary movie. The drawback? Nobody could get a hold of a pleasant story. Pitt was now not in making the similar film twice.

During a 2023 interview with JoBlo.com, Mr. And Mrs. Smith screenwriter Simon Kinberg talked about the difficulty of drafting a sequel that was once pleasant for each of its stars. The biggest issue, it gave the impression, used to be discovering any other battle for the titular couple to take care of:

"The strength of the first movie is it's a love story. They are, you know, falling back in love with each other or in love for the first time in a genuine way. And to tell a love story, to serialize a love story is very hard. Because no matter what you do in the second movie, sure, they could be partners and spies and bickering together, but you wouldn't actually have the arc of two people who are falling in love."

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Jolie told Vanity Fair that she was keen to reunite with Pitt in another film, however once the bottom fell out of Mr. And Mrs. Smith 2, the couple didn't work in combination till By The Sea (2015). The movie, which used to be directed by Jolie and produced by way of Pitt, depicts a couple on the finish of their time in combination, and it coincided with the dissolution of the couple's real-life relationship.

By The Sea was a commercial flop, grossing just $3.3 million on a $10 million budget.

Brad Pitt Would Have Been Paid Over $20 Million To Reprise His Character

There's a basic rule of thumb in Hollywood that if a film does well, then the price range for the sequel will get a spice up. Mr. And Mrs. Smith would were no other. The original film had a sizable finances of $100 million, however its resounding success with audiences meant that there was once no restrict to what twentieth Century Fox would have shelled out to get its stars again.

Brad Pitt used to be paid a whopping $20 million for his performance as John Smith, which used to be probably the most he had ever been paid for a unmarried movie up to that point (he's since been paid the same amount for blockbusters like Babylon and Bullet Train).

If the duo agreed to return for Mr. And Mrs. Smith 2, then Hollywood custom dictates that they would have each gained a vital bump in pay, which means that Pitt can have been given the biggest payday of his career. When one looks on the leisure of Pitt's biggest salaries, it's simple to see how Mr. And Mrs. Smith 2 could have put him in rare company so far as film stars go.

Brad Pitt's Highest Salaries (According To Bustle)

Film

$20 Million

Babylon (2022)

$20 Million

Bullet Train (2022)

$20 Million

Mr. And Mrs. Smith (2005)

$17.5 Million

Fight Club (1999)

The fact that Angelina Jolie was once most effective paid $10 million for Mr. And Mrs. Smith is seen by some as an example of sexism in Hollywood, given that she used to be on a equivalent degree of popularity as Pitt on the time the film used to be released, and had even gained an Oscar (which Pitt did not do till 2020).

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It remains to be seen whether Jolie's lesser pay used to be a factor in her determination to turn a sequel down, however we do know that her and Pitt critically regarded as returning at one point, and even introduced in further writers to kick it into shape. Jolie informed Vanity Fair that their efforts had been in the long run in vain:

"We did ask somebody to look into Mr. And Mrs. to see if they could crack a sequel, but there wasn't anything original. It was just, Well, they're going to get married, or they've got kids, or they get separated. Never great."

Brad Pitt And Angelina Jolie's Divorce Has Ensured That A Sequel Will Never Happen

While the perception of some other Mr. And Mrs. Smith movie persisted to draw buzz during the 2010s, the messy divorce of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie all however guaranteed that a sequel would never come to fruition. The couple introduced their break up in 2016, and Jolie claimed that she deliberate to transfer out of Hollywood to center of attention on her well-being as soon as the method was finished.

The ideas for the Mr. And Mrs. Smith sequel had been retooled over the previous few years, with the action-comedy Keeping Up With The Joneses (2016) and the impending TV reboot Mr. And Mrs. Smith (2024) serving as the runoff for what used to be in the end deserted via Pitt and Jolie.

Pitt will have failed to secure the $20+ million payday that Mr. And Mrs. Smith 2 would have given him, however the actor continues to be one of essentially the most bankable in Hollywood. According to Variety, Pitt will receive a career-high $30 million to star in an upcoming F1 racing drama through Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski.

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Pitt's manufacturing corporate, Plan B Productions, may be dealing with the untitled movie. All issues regarded as, we might say the actor is doing simply high-quality without Mr. And Mrs. Smith 2 under his belt.

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