Hangover III Brings Big Payday for Cooper, Galifianakis, and Helms

Posted January 25th, 2012 by Binh Ngo

With salary negotiations apparently done, the third sequel to Hangover can get under way, but it will be costly for Warner Bros., relatively speaking. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the movie's three stars, Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, and Ed Helms, have negotiated a sweet deal for themselves to the tune of $15 million each against backend.

That's a huge increase from what they were paid for the first and second movie. From the article, the trio were paid just under one million each for the first movie and $5 million (plus backend) for the second.

The two movies combined for a worldwide gross of over $1 billion at the box office: $467 million for Part I and $581 million for Part II. The nice part is that the two movies only cost Warner Bros. $115 million to make.

The Hangover movies appear to be critic-proof as well. While the first Hangover got 78% on RottenTomatoes, the second movie scored only 35%. Despite that, the second movie made even more than the first.

Assuming the third and final Hangover is going to cost in the neighborhood of $60-$80 million and the worldwide gross is going to be similar to the first two movies, it's still a sweet deal for all parties involved. Since this is a backend deal, Warner doesn't have to pay the $60 million until some box office milestone has been met.

Hangover Part III is looking to start production this summer for a Memorial Day 2013 release. The story will take place in Los Angeles and may involve one of the trio trying to escape from a mental hospital and may differ in structure to the two previous movies. Don't hold me to that, however. We'll know more about the plot as more info is released.

Todd Phillips who directed the first two movies will return to helm the third.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1924376/news/1924376/

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