One of Netflix’s biggest blockbusters, Bird Box, starred A-list Hollywood actress Sandra Bullock. How much did Sandra Bullock get paid for her role in the movie?
The exact amount Sandra Bullock was paid for ‘Bird Box’ is undisclosed. The only figures released by Netflix were viewing figures, which placed unique viewership at 45 million in the first week.
Netflix, thanks to their success in positioning themselves as the premier paid streaming service, has been dipping their toe into the waters of in-house show and movie production for quite some time now. Having the resources to enlist an actress of Bullock’s caliber and popularity will no doubt have helped to give the movie a huge head-start but can we extrapolate any information about pay or earnings from this?
What is Bullock Worth?
Unfortunately, attempting to do any math or guesswork with regards to the way in which viewership figures translate into potential payment is borderline impossible. Unlike the way that pay is handled in a traditional cinema release, Netflix doesn’t rely on the box office to make money.
So, it’s anybody’s guess how much a star of Bullock’s standing gets paid, although it’s fair to say that Bullock has an undeniable wealth of experience in putting out blockbuster hits. When it comes to putting viewers in seats and generating ticket sales, Bullock’s track record speaks for itself, a fact that’s backed up by the raw numbers.
Some of her latest, most popular cinema outings include the likes of Gravity, The Blind Side, and Ocean’s 8. All three of these movies managed to accrue enormous amounts of money in their opening weeks.
Gravity, featuring Bullock alongside fellow A-lister George Clooney, managed to rack up $55 million in its opening week. At the time this was a record-breaking number, understandable when considering who the two main stars of the movie were and the fact that Bullock had just returned from a short break from the industry.
To no surprise, Ocean’s 8 did similarly well in its opening week, promising a fresh new take in the universe of an already established, popular series of movies. Even without external factors driving sales, Bullock still produces box office crushing numbers, such as in the case of The Blind Side.
How Does it all Translate?
It’s hard to estimate how all of this translates to the success of Bird Box, based on the viewership and revenue of Bullock’s other numbers. The viewing numbers reported by Netflix, if true, would paint the picture of Bird Box being one of the most successful movies of all time.
While it’s possible that the numbers are accurate, a number of critics and media outlets observed that Netflix’s release of that single, slightly obscure statistic, did little to measure the true success of the movie. Needless to say, however, based on Bullock’s previous history with producing enviable numbers at the box office, Bird Box was potentially capable of the kind of numbers that were claimed.
Whether it was more successful financially for her than Gravity is another question altogether as she swung a first-dollar gross arrangement on that movie, the one that broke records and became her most financially successful movie to date. Considering that, the final paycheck she received for Gravity could possibly have been somewhere in the region of $70 million.
It’s not altogether out of the realm of reason that she may have been paid that amount, especially when considering that Netflix will take into account the worth of a major star and pay them upfront for the full amount.
Netflix’s Limitless Budget
Whatever the case may be, the fact that Netflix is seemingly able to bag even the biggest and brightest stars for their projects is indicative that they must be meeting with a serious amount of success. The total budget that they have for their projects speaks volumes about that success.
In the case of some of their larger projects, they have been known to shell out upwards of $150 million to fund some of their productions. As Netflix continues to grow, it’s numbers like this which will continue to improve how attractive an alternative the streaming site is becoming to new stars in the making.
Just look at flagship show Stranger Things as an example of the potential salary growth that Netflix can offer to a potential up-and-comer in which one of the actors earned an incredible $350,000 per episode!