The Ridiculous Amount of Money Harrison Ford Got for Indiana Jones 4
The Indiana Jones franchise looks to be revived once again come summer 2023, still with the ever-bankable Harrison Ford as their lead.
Ford has been one of the most profitable stars in Hollywood for decades, proven by his salary when Indiana Jones was first revived in 2008 with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with Shia LaBeouf.
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was released 19 years after its previous installment, but then-66-year-old Harrison Ford still raked in a $65 million salary for his part. For comparison, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indy's first adventure in 1981, worked off a budget of only $18 million – a $47 million difference, not adjusting for inflation. And even accounting for inflation, he still would have made a higher salary for his fourth Indiana Jones portrayal than the first one cost to make.
To put things into perspective, even Robert Downey Jr. ' paycheck for The Avengers was less than Ford's for Indiana Jones 4 – "just" a mere $50 million.
Ford's career hasn't always taken the traditional path. He began as an actor in the 1960s with small, often uncredited, roles. To support himself and his family, he took up carpentry. As luck would have it, Francis Ford Coppola hired him as a carpenter to expand his office. Ford ended up with minor roles in Coppola's The Conversation and Apocalypse Now.
In 1973, he appeared in George Lucas' American Graffiti. Lucas eventually cast Ford in his epic space opera, Star Wars, as Han Solo. At 35 years old, he finally had his big break.
Lucas soon began producing a new franchise with his friend Steven Spielberg to direct and chose Ford to star. That franchise was Indiana Jones, and suddenly Ford was starring in two of the biggest blockbuster franchises of the 1980s.
By his 50s in the 1990s, he was a bona fide star of movies like Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, and The Fugitive. He slowed down in the 2000s before an eventual apparent retirement.
At the age of 66, his return as an action hero came in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. His career snapped back into place and he once again became one of the highest-paid stars, even into his 70s and 80s. He starred in 42 as Branch Rickey, Cowboys and Aliens as a rough cowboy, and the sequel to 1982's Blade Runner in 2017 at 75 years old.
Like the revival of Indiana Jones, his fan-favorite Han Solo returned to the screen in 2015 with the seventh episode of Star Wars.
Harrison Ford will be 81 when the newest Indiana Jones movie releases next year, and he's still as bankable as ever. Given his frustrating, slow start into the business, it seems he's making the most of his opportunity as a movie star.
Indiana Jones 5 is slated for a June 30, 2023 release and will star Fleabag's Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Mads Mikkelsen of Rogue One alongside Ford.