With Wicked: For Good dominating the box office since its November 21 release, it’s clear that Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo have yet another massive hit on their hands after the success of the film’s first installment last year.
Wicked made $114 million in its opening weekend in North America while the film’s sequel reportedly made $150 million in it’s first three days, according to The New York Times. So, how do Erivo and Grande’s salaries compare to the success of the film franchise?
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How Much Were Ariana Grande & Cynthia Erivo Paid For Wicked?
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo received the same salary for the Wicked movies but rumors about how much the women were paid have been a complicated saga.
In November 2024, reports claimed that Grande was paid $15 million for her role as Glinda while Erivo earned just $1 million for her potrayal of Elphaba. These reports cited Grande’s larger fanbase as the reason for the pay discrepancy. However, these reports turned out to be false.
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Universal Pictures pushed back on the salary discrepancy narrative and shared a statement with Variety in Novemebr 2024. “Reports of pay disparity between Cynthia and Ariana are completely false and based on internet fodder,” a Universal Pictures spokesperson said. “The women received equal pay for their work on Wicked.“
WICKED, from left: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, 2024.
©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection.
Later, in a January interview with Variety, Grande and Erivo confirmed that not only did they get paid the same amount, they agreed on their contracts together. “We went through our contracts together,” Grande said, “and called each other up. ‘Did you see that? What do you think about that? Let’s get it together!’”
“We both went through it — ‘What number are we doing? How do you feel about that?’ We were really f–king honest,” Erivo said. “And that’s really rare. People don’t do that.”
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Equal pay is an important discussion in Hollywood, especially when it comes to paying Black actresses, who often earn far less than their white female co-stars. Octavia Spencer raised the red flag in 2018 with Jessica Chastain when they wanted to star in a Christmas comedy together. At the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s “Women Breaking Barriers” panel, the Oscar winner for The Help shared details of their financial discussion.
“I said, ‘But here’s the thing, women of color on that spectrum, we make far less than white women. So, if we’re gonna have that conversation about pay equity, we gotta bring the women of color to the table,’” she said, via The Hollywood Reporter. “And I told her my story, and we talked numbers, and she was quiet, and she said she had no idea that that’s what it was like for women of color.”
Spencer continued, “I love that woman because she’s walking the walk and she’s actually talking the talk. [Chastain] said, ‘Octavia, we’re gonna get you paid on this film.” Together, they earned the same amount in a “favored nations” contract which resulted in both of them “making five times what [they] asked for.”
Spencer and Chastain stuck together much like Grande and Erivo have throughout the filming and press junket. It’s likely why Universal Pictures felt the need to speak up about honoring the women equally on a financial level. Fans don’t know exactly how much they earned for the first part of Wicked, but they can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that pay equality was honored for the box-office hit.
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