After conquering the world this year with a whopping $550 million worldwide to date, it is no surprise that Universal Pictures and Focus Features are fast-tracking plans to bring the Fifty Shades of Grey sequels to the screen. But while fans can’t wait to see the return of Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele, the films stars aren’t quite locked in just yet.
Unsurprisingly after the success of the first film, stars Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan are reportedly seeking a bumper pay increase to star in the sequels, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed. Both were reportedly paid $250,000 each for the first film, but The Hollywood Reporter suggests they are looking to boost their contacts with seven-figure fees.
The pair are contracted to appear in both sequels regardless, but the financial success of the first film, and the undoubted box-office bonanza still in store, has led to the duo looking for better deals, including a backend which neither received for the first film.
There have been many instances of this kind of franchise renegotiation before, with Jennifer Lawrence jumping from $500,000 to $10 million between the first two Hunger Games films; and Twilight stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, who reportedly scooped $25 million each for the Breaking Dawn films, against the much smaller amounts paid for the first Twilight.
“It was a very basic franchise starter deal,” says an insider to THR of the terms of Johnson’s and Dornan’s contracts. “Look at Twilight and Hunger Games, and that’s where it is heading.”
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