Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 80s Comedy Flop Paid Off More Than Any of His Action Films

Arnold Schwarzenegger has always been an action movie legend, and this was what caused him some trouble when he tried to sign up for a 1988 comedy film where he starred opposite Danny DeVito.

Coming off the immense success that he had with movies like The Terminator, Commando and The Running Man, Schwarzenegger had a change of plan when he insisted on starring in Twins, a cult classic comedy movie that went on to become one of the highest-grossing films that year.

Even though Twins found its success primarily thanks to Schwarzenegger being one of the leads, the movie studios were sceptical about the whole thing for quite an understandable reason.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Was Labeled Unfunny by Studios’ Execs Until ‘Twins’ Came Along

It seems like the actor had to follow his previous hits’ storylines in real life and fight his way through movie execs’ prejudice just to get in a movie that wasn’t considered “his” genre.

During a conversation with his son Patrick in Variety’s “Actors on Actors” latest instalment, the elder Schwarzenegger recalled being rejected by movie studios every time he would express his wish to star in a comedy.

“Why would they? They said, “Are you crazy? The more people that this guy kills on-screen, the more money we make. Why would we change that?” That was the dialogue until Ivan Reitman and Danny DeVito came along”, the actor revealed.

He then added that the three of them had eventually come up with a plan that worked out just fine, though they were left with no money for their job.

“So I said, “Why don’t we all three take no money.” If we don’t take any salaries, we can shoot the movie for $16.5 million. We worked out a deal where we got 40% of the backend of the movie. It happened to be the best deal we’ve ever made”, Schwarzenegger said.

‘Twins’ Brought Schwarzenegger, DeVito and Reitman Even More Than They Could Wish For

• On Rotten Tomatoes, Twins has scores of 42% and 39% from critics and audiences
• On IMDb, the movie is rated 6.2/10

Despite some pretty discouraging reviews, the movie went on to become a major box office hit, grossing more than $210 million against its budget of $16 million and becoming the fifth highest-grossing film that year.

Ironically, Twins also gave Schwarzenegger, DeVito and Reitman the biggest paychecks in their entire careers just due to the percentage of all revenue.

Eventually, Schwarzenegger’s dream of becoming a comedy star also came true, with the actor continuing to star in several more comedy movies over the years. “At that point, I was able to do just about anything — except Shakespeare”, the actor admitted.

Where to Watch ‘Twins’?

The movie is available for streaming on Prime Video.