Tim Miller revealed how much he made as the director of 2016’s Deadpool, his feature film directorial debut.
The filmmaker said in a new interview that it wasn’t “profitable” being a first-time director making the superhero movie starring Ryan Reynolds, despite the massive success the Marvel Comics-based film had.
“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,” Miller told Collider. “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.”
He continued, “Not that I’m not grateful, I’m fucking 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!’
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Deadpool made over $782M at the box office worldwide. Miller told the publication that he feels “uniquely fortunate” to have been part of what became a huge franchise, adding, “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.”
After the success of the first Deadpool movie, a sequel was released in 2018, with David Leitch taking over as the director. After Disney acquired Fox in 2017, the Deadpool character was integrated into Marvel Studios’ MCU, and a third installment of the franchise was released in 2024 with Deadpool & Wolverine directed by Shawn Levy.