Did Arnold Schwarzenegger not get paid for "Twins"? The actor reveals that the movie was the biggest paycheck of his career

Arnold Schwarzenegger is opening up about the paycheck he got from Twins.

The bodybuilder-turned-actor spoke to Andy Cohen for a recent interview on Watch What Happens Live, where he revealed that the 1988 film had given him the biggest payout of his career.

“Well, number one was ‘Twins’ because we got no money for the salary but ownership with a piece of the back end,” Schwarzenegger said of the comedy film. “It was fantastic. We went all the way to the bank with that.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger starred alongside Danny DeVito in the Ivan Reitman-directed comedy. When asked if he made north of $20 million, he conceded to it being more than double:

“It was more than that. It was more than any movie I ever made.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger says he didn't want a salary from Twins because he wanted to prove something to Hollywood: Read more

Arnold Schwarzenegger, 77, is known for starring in several prolific movies, including Kindergarten Cop, Predator, Conan the Barbarian, The Running Man, Terminator, Jingle All the Way, Batman & Robin, and more.

The 1998 film Twins starred Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger as fraternal brothers. It chronicles the tale of an innocent man who ventures in search of his brother, ending up being a stout, womanizing crook. The film grossed over $200 million at the box office when it debuted in the US in 1998 and in the UK by the following year.

Schwarzenegger also told Cohen that a sequel called Triplets was in the works, but Ivan Reitman had died “just before we wanted to start shooting the movie.”

As pointed out by The Hollywood Reporter, in the past, Schwarzenegger has gotten candid about opting out of taking a salary for the film because he wanted to prove himself as a comedian. Speaking with Business Insider in May 2019, he said:

"They were like, 'No, we know we are going to make money with you if you do action movies.'" He added, "Literally for 'Twins' I took no salary — I just wanted to give it a shot." He went on, "And it just happened to be my first movie to make $100 million domestic. So they realized that it works, Schwarzenegger can cross over."

The success of the film eventually led him to film Kindergarten Cop two years later, which is also considered a classic comedy film today.

"We would get together every so often and talk about ideas and projects," Schwarzenegger said. "And he asked me, 'What is your ultimate dream project?' And I said beside doing more 'Conan' and 'Terminator' movies, the movie that I always wanted to do a sequel of was 'Kindergarten Cop.' And he said that he loved that movie. I told him I would love to do more shows for the kids."

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