Have We Finally Reached (and Found) Our New Stars for a New Era?

There are only a select few actors in the entire world who can command $20 million for a movie role simply by being in front of the cameras when they start to roll, but that exclusive club gained a new member recently. Her name, you ask? Jennifer Lawrence, of course. Didn’t you read the headline?

According to a report at The Hollywood Reporter, Lawrence is set to pull in twenty rocks for her role opposite Chris Pratt (who’s getting $10 million) in Passengers, a long-gestating sci-fi feature that ultimately landed at Sony. Keanu Reeves and Reese Witherspoon were once attached to star, then Reeves and Rachel McAdams, and now hot commodities Lawrence and Pratt are locked in as the leads, with Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game) set to direct.

Lawrence’s negotiation strength has grown exponentially since picking up her first Oscar nomination for Winter’s Bone and starring in both the X-Men and Hunger Games franchises. Add a Best Actress win for her role in Silver Linings Playbook and another nomination for American Hustle and it’s no surprise Lawrence can more or less demand whatever amount she sees fit before deciding whether to take on a project or keep searching for something else. Most recently she received $15 million to star in David O. Russell‘s Joy.

Between Lawrence, Pratt, Tyldum, and costs associated with development over the years, the project has already racked up nearly half of its proposed $80 million budget, though the film could cost closer to $95 million when all is said and done. No matter, Lawrence’s salary will be somewhere between 20-25% of the movie’s entire budget, which is at once astonishing but also not a complete shocker. You pay for what you get, and with Lawrence you’re getting one of the biggest stars working today.

Passengers is a sci-fi romance — I’m intrigued already — centered on a male passenger and a female passenger who awaken from a cryogenic sleep 90 years earlier than scheduled during an interstellar voyage. Jon Spaihts (Prometheus) wrote the script.

Neal Moritz, a producer on Passengers, tells THR that Sony has no reason to balk. “You’ve got the two biggest stars in the world. We’re making the movie at a reasonable cost. It’s a great script. It’s all good,” he says. Of course, deals in Hollywood are now done a little differently with stars getting a little less upfront in exchange for a piece of the backend. The THR article notes Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum have asked for $20 million each for 23 Jump Street after they each got $6 million for the first and $10 million for the second, including a big backend. THR says Sony is said to have offered $15 million for the third as they plan not only 23 Jump Street, but a female-led Jump Street spin-off and a Jump Street and Men in Black crossover (get details here). Don’t want to set to high a precedent, I guess, when you have that much hope for the future.

One agent tells THR, “At the end, I believe [Tatum and Hill are] going to get $20 million, too, [and] it’s going to have a ripple effect, not just on Jump Street.” Have we finally reached and found our new stars for a new era?

As far as which actors can currently command such sums, the list is rather small, but it appears things may be changing. Previously The Hollywood Reporter listed the likes of Robert Downey Jr., Leonardo DiCaprio, Sandra Bullock, Angelina Jolie, Denzel Washington and Matt Damon as the members of the $20 million club and it appears now we may have three more names to add to that list. Meanwhile, the likes of Bradley Cooper, Dwayne Johnson, Melissa McCarthy and Scarlett Johansson aren’t too far behind, the latter of which scooping up a reported $17.5 million to star in the live action Ghost in the Shell for Dreamworks following the success of Lucy.