Sigourney Weaver earned the biggest paydays of her career from the Alien franchise.
But how much did she get paid per movie?
Weaver made her screen debut with Ridley Scott’s Alien, but despite the movie’s runaway success, it took seven years for a sequel to materialize. Her career only went from strength to strength in the meantime, with notable highlights including The Year of Living Dangerously and Ghostbusters. Her career was in such a good place that she was initially reluctant to return for Aliens, and it was only thanks to a great script and a major pay bump that she signed on.
While franchises and IP now rule the roost in Hollywood, actors and creatives used to shy away from them. Aliens was such a huge success in 1986 that another sequel was guaranteed, but Weaver was extremely reluctant and rejected the many pitches that came her way. Again, another big payday and the promise of creative input lured her back for Alien 3, which she also insisted was her last time playing Ripley. That’s until Fox came back again with a record-breaking sum for the actor to star in Alien Resurrection that she dusted off the flamethrower one final time.
Sigourney Weaver Made Over $16 Million For The Alien Movies
Across the four Alien movies she starred in, Weaver made over $16 million in total. Being a relative unknown in the first movie saw her make $35,000, despite being the main character. When it came time to lure her on to Aliens, Fox handed over a cool $1 million, which made her one of the highest-paid female stars at the time. Fox originally demanded that director James Cameron write Ripley out, aware that Weaver would ask for a big fee. Knowing how important Weaver’s Ripley was to the story, Cameron refused and even briefly quit the project when Fox wouldn’t budge.
Nonetheless, Weaver’s salary negotiations got so involved that Cameron played a trick, and got in touch with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s agent to float the idea of him starring instead.
When Weaver’s agent got wind of this empty threat, her deal was closed soon after. In keeping with her importance to the series, Weaver earned a $4 million paycheck for Alien 3, plus a percentage of the threequel’s gross. For Alien Resurrection she took home $11 million – more than the entire production budget of the original – in addition to receiving a co-producer credit.
