Good Will Hunting was a breakout success for Matt Damon, turning him into one of the most sought-after stars in Hollywood. The 1997 drama, co-written with a long-standing friend of Ben Affleck, earned the pair an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and was a major turning point for their careers. Along with the critical praise came their first real Hollywood paycheck, an experience that Affleck has since looked back on with surprising honesty when he reflects on his early years in the business. 

The film changed their careers overnight, but their first Hollywood payday disappeared much faster than either of them expected. 

Ben Affleck has recently revealed that he and his long-time friend Matt Damon blew all the cash they made selling the Good Will Hunting script in just six months. They shared a bank account when they were young, and they went broke together, too. On The Drew Barrymore Show, Affleck reminisced about his early days in Hollywood and was asked about the joint account he and Damon set up as teenagers to help pay for auditions. 

“We were broke in 6 months,” he recalled, referring to how quickly they spent their Good Will Hunting earnings.

Affleck revealed that he and Damon had the joint bank account even into their twenties after moving to Los Angeles to pursue acting. They sold the screenplay for the movie for $600,000 while writing it, which Affleck thought would set them up for life. But after taxes and agent fees, they each took home about $110,000, which they spent on matching Jeep Cherokees and a party house near the Hollywood Bowl. 

The money was gone within six months, but that setback did not last long. Good Will Hunting was a critical and commercial hit, and Affleck and Damon won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay at the 70th Oscars. It led to them getting major studio projects and leading roles. 

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Looking back, the screenplay deal appears remarkably modest considering what the film would go on to achieve. 

Good Will Hunting began as a playwriting assignment that Matt Damon wrote while at Harvard University, and then brought childhood friend Ben Affleck in to help develop the screenplay. The script was initially purchased by Castle Rock Entertainment for $600,000, but the film eventually ended up at Miramax, where it went into production. Damon later revealed that he and Affleck split the screenplay fee, with his acting deal also guaranteeing extra money if the project was green-lit, making it their first major Hollywood payday. 

It was the breakthrough that made both writers into Hollywood stars, and the $600,000 screenplay deal looked modest in comparison to what Damon went on to earn. The movie cost around $10 million to produce and took in about $225 million worldwide. Additionally, Affleck and Damon, whose current net worth is 170 million dollars, also won major awards. 

The story of how Damon and Affleck made their big payday for Good Will Hunting is less about how fast they spent the money and more about what the screenplay ultimately gave them. The film was the beginning of two long careers. Good Will Hunting sent them to stardom on the back of a modest screenplay sale, but it was also the genesis of decades of success, with that initial paycheck only a fraction of the film’s lasting impact. 

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Was spending the Good Will Hunting payday in six months a costly mistake or a valuable lesson? Let us know in the comments.