Will Smith Earned $40,000,000 for His Oscar Winning Flick That Grossed Only $39,000,000 at the Box Office

Published 08/23/2023, 2:03 AM EDT

via Imago

With a whopping net worth of $350 million, Will Smith is one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood. From humble beginnings in Philadelphia to reaching such heights in his career, it is safe to say the Emancipation actor has come a long way. After gracing the big screen with dozens of blockbusters, Smith enjoys the luxuries of a Tinseltown A-lister. Especially because of movies like Independence Day and Bad Boys that made him a household name while making billions.

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Yet his projects’ financial success is dampened by one particular flick. However, the same movie came to be his most critically-acclaimed project as well!

Smith earned more than two-thirds of this biopic’s budget

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The same night that the unfortunate slapgate incident took place at the hands of Smith, he won an Oscar for King Richard. But the movie for which he won the award is also the one that did not break even and lost $11 million instead. And as reported by Screen Rant, the fact that Smith made $40 million off the project made this fact all the more baffling!

Although the biography was based on Serena and Venus Williams’ father, it is also unclear whether they received any money for it. It can be said that with a budget of $50 million, King Richard may have distributed its funds unfairly. Because the remaining team could not have been happy with Smith taking such a large portion of its budget.

Regardless of the substantial pay gap between him and the team, the crew walked away happy. Because to make up for the same, Smith made an honorable gesture. 

Will Smith chooses to pay it forward

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In acknowledging the benefit he had received over the rest of King Richard’s crew, Smith decided to rectify the situation. After stating that it would only be “fair, the 54-year-old decided to spend some of his earnings on bonuses for the team. Additionally, he even gave some of them Polaroid cameras and iPhones.

Besides being a talented actor and rapper, the father of three is known to be a kind-hearted man. And he definitely proved the same by rewarding those that played a huge role in getting him an Oscar.

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Were you aware that despite winning Will Smith an Oscar, King Richard made losses while paying the actor so much? Tell us in the comments below.

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Ibadat Kaur

212 articles

Ibadat Kaur is an entertainment writer at Netflix Junkie. Her love for Narcos & Pedro Pascal is what brought her to the world of entertainment news. She has immense love for historical and investigative documentaries on people and cultural practices.

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