Summary

Arnold Schwarzenegger's highest paycheck came from "Twins," earning over $40 million.
"Twins" has a hilarious plot about fraternal twin brothers who have contrasting appearances.
Despite his iconic roles in the Terminator franchise, Schwarzenegger shared he's done with it.

Arnold Schwarzenegger became a household name because of the Terminator franchise, but he made the most money of his career from another movie.

While Schwarzenegger starred in a few movies in the 1970s and 1980s, it was the 1984 sci-fi action movie The Terminator that got people talking. Although he is known for appearing in the corny 1996 holiday movie Jingle All The Way and the adaptation of Stephen King's The Running Man, which was released in 1987, people most associate the actor with the Terminator franchise. The sequel, Terminator 2: Judgement Day came out in 1991, followed by several more films. The sixth, Terminator: Dark Fate, was released in 2019. James Cameron is making a seventh movie, and fans are curious about the Terminator franchise's future. While these action-packed stories have no doubt been a huge part of Schwarzenegger's career, he had the biggest payday from another film.

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By Alex Lawrence

Arnold Schwarzenegger Shares He Made More Than $40 Million From His 1988 Movie Twins

Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger in Twins

In an interview on Bravo's "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen" (via Variety), Arnold Schwarzenegger shared that he earned over $40 million from the 1988 comedy "Twins." He said:

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

The actor answered a question about his Twins money: did he earn $20 million? He replied it was higher than that. When asked if he made $40 million, he said:

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

This is fascinating to hear about, especially since fans would assume that Schwarzenegger made the most money from his career on a Terminator movie. According to Celebrity Net Worth, he has a net worth of $750 million and earned $75,000 from the first Terminator film. As the publication explained, the director Ivan Reitman and two main stars Danny DeVito and Schwarzenegger made a deal: they would own 40% of Twins, which meant 13.3% per person, but they wouldn't earn a salary. When Twins grossed over $215 million, that meant they walked away with a huge payday.

Twins is a hilarious story about twin brothers Vincent (DeVito) and Julius Benedict (Schwarzenegger) who learn about each other later in life and get into all kinds of trouble. The joke of the movie is that they don't look alike, but since they're fraternal and not identical twins, it still works.

For several years, fans thought that a Twins sequel was in the works, and in 2021, DeVito said, "we're working on it." Then, in 2023, Schwarzenegger said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that the movie, which was called Triplets, wasn't going to be made. He said Jason Reitman "put a hold" on the movie after Ivan Reitman passed away. Schwarzenegger said, "His father wanted to do it really badly. I wanted to do it really badly. Danny DeVito wanted to do it really badly. We had the financing."

In his THR 2023 interview, Schwarzenegger said he was finished starring in the Terminator franchise, but noted that it would continue with another actor. While he's starred in several other sci-fi movies, he's the face of the franchise, and so this marks a big change. Some of his most recent roles include Luke Brunner on FUBAR and voicing King Aelstrom in one 2024 episode of Secret Level. Fans can see the actor next as Santa Claus in The Man with the Bag and The President in Kung Fu Panda 2.