Sure that ain't chicken feed to the average Joe. But in the worlds of big budget Hollywood blockbusters, it's really not a lot, especially when you consider how much Tobey Maguire made from his three portrayals of Parker. But then of course, we always knew Sony were going to bring this one in at a much lower budget. I suppose it's not that surprising.
Tobey Maguire was paid $4 million for the first film. It has been reported that he was paid $17.5 million plus 5% back-end for "Spider-Man 2," and $15 million plus 7.5% back-end for "Spider-Man 3." And he was supposedly offered $20 million plus a small percentage of backend for "Spider-Man 4" which of course was scrapped in favor of this reboot. According to Deadline:
..I'm told Garfield's pay scale on the film is around $500,000 salary on the first film, $1 million for the second one, and $2 million for the third film. All of the finalists were presented with those terms in a deal for one film and two options.]
Director Marc Webb had a lot of critical and commercial success with his debut feature
500 Days Of Summer, although he still wouldn't have been considered a big time player by any means. And of course Garfield is a relative unknown. Appearing in mainly indie fare like
Boy A, the Red Riding series, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus etc. But gaining huge praise and plaudits for his work. So it seems like Sony has managed to nab some big time talent for hardly any cash at all. I think that might be a good thing. Obviously a film like Spider-man needs special effects, but without millions upon millions to splurge, sometimes a movie will focus on story and character more than it might have before--which is never a bad thing. I'm still not in favor of this reboot, but if they can make it the best they can, I'll certainly give it a chance!
But despite rumors(and hopes) that with the casting of the 26 year old Garfield, the movie would change its proposed high school setting for either college, or even have the story take place around the same time period that the third Raimi movie ended(sort of requel style a la
The Incredible Hulk) it seems as if it's still going to go the Spidey 90210 route.
The film will begin shooting by year's end for a July 3, 2012 release date from a script by Jamie Vanderbilt.