After X-Men Origins: Wolverine, pretty much no one expected 20th Century Fox to make a Deadpool movie. However, when CG test footage was leaked, the studio gave in but remained reluctant to spend too much money on the Marvel Comics adaptation.
First-time filmmaker Tim Miller (who had plenty of VFX experience) was hired to direct the action and faced his fair share of challenges, including a last-minute decision by the studio to cut a major set piece from the final act.
The R-Rated movie went on to gross $782 million worldwide and made the Merc with the Mouth a household name. However, Deadpool certainly didn't make Miller rich.
"You know what I feel? Nothing but pride," he told Collider while looking back at the 2016 release. "I mean, I feel like every time I walk down the aisles out there on the floor of CCXP and I see all these Deadpool figurines, I think they wouldn't be here if we hadn't made that film. And I feel uniquely fortunate that I could be part of it."
"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.' 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."
"I got $225,000 to direct Deadpool," the director revealed. "I know it sounds like a lot of money, but for two years of work, that's not a ton of money. Not that I'm not grateful, I'm [frick]ing 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!'"
Miller added, "I think a lot of people think that everyone's getting paid millions and millions in Hollywood. It's just not the case, not always. I don't want to sound like I wasn't grateful because I had worked, I was 50 when I got a chance to direct Deadpool, and I really thought I wasn't going to get a chance to direct a movie even though I'd wanted to my whole life."
It's bonkers that Miller made that little but perhaps not overly surprising when Fox seemed to be gearing up for Deadpool to be a flop. The studio wasn't confident in its chances of success but it proved them wrong and the much bigger budgeted Deadpool 2 followed two years later.
While Miller wasn't in charge of that following creative differences with Ryan Reynolds, he went on to helm Terminator: Dark Fate and has also worked on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise and Secret Level.
Are you shocked that the filmmaker only made $225,000 for his work on Deadpool?