Much has been (rightly) made of the runaway success of current box office smash Wonder Woman over the last couple of weeks, having made more than $500 million in the U.S. and on the verge of becoming one of the ten highest-grossing superhero movies of all time. Not to mention its symbolic significance in representing a breakthrough for women at the highest echelons of the film industry.

Making it all the more surprising then, that its lead star Gal Gadot was paid a comparatively paltry sum of $300,000 – and adding new fuel to the debate over the gender pay gap in Hollywood as a result.

Gal GadotGal Gadot reportedly was only paid $300k for 'Wonder Woman'

The revelation came on Monday (June 19th) in a report by The Daily Dot via Glamour. It said that Gadot herself said back in 2014 that she had signed on to play Wonder Woman in three movies – the D.C. universe films Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, the forthcoming Justice League and the stand-alone film Wonder Woman – for $300,000 each.

However, the report also said that Gadot does stand to make a bonus if the movie passes a certain “box office milestone”, and that her pay is commensurate with other stars (particularly if they are comparatively unknown ones) if they have signed on for multiple movies. It cites Chris Evans (who plays Captain America in the Marvel films as having earned the same $300k figure.

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On the other hand, Gadot’s paycheque absolutely pales in comparison with the known earnings of male stars in prestigious superhero roles. A recent Deadline article pointed out that Robert Downey Jr. was paid an eye-watering $50 million for playing Iron Man in The Avengers.

British star Henry Cavill, who was widely unknown before he got cast as Superman in 2013, earned $14 million for Man of Steel, and Chris Hemsworth got paid $5.4 million for his role as Thor in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

While Gadot will presumably have a great deal of leverage to get a significant raise on an inevitable sequel to Wonder Woman, the initial outlay of $300,000 is rather embarrassingly low in comparison to the risks studios are clearly prepared to take on male stars, unknown or otherwise.

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