Highlights
- Arnold Schwarzenegger's net worth is $450 million and still rising despite his scandals and age, thanks to his savvy business deals and royalty agreements.
- Terminator films helped Arnold build his net worth exponentially; Terminator 2 alone landed him a $15 million paycheck.
- Arnold's other sources of income include speaking engagements, his stint as California governor, and his various books, but his name still carries enough star power to demand a multi-million-dollar paycheck.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is probably the most famous for his gig as The Terminator (well, and T-800), but he's also well-known for a handful of other projects—not all of them flattering. Yet Schwarzenegger's strategy for making it big in Hollywood seems to involve a mix of personal embarrassment, humility, and a willingness to try something new.
Ages after his affair rocked headlines (and his relationship troubles quietly culminated in divorce) but not before people forgot "Hasta la vista, baby," Arnold continues to rake in the dough over a long list of IMDb credits. Here's how much Arnold Schwarzenegger is worth, and precisely how he's made his millions.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's Net Worth Is $450 Million And Rising
It might not be surprising that Arnold Schwarzenegger has a massive net worth of $450 million. After decades in the spotlight, not only in film but also in politics, Arnold is clearly well-heeled.
What might be surprising is that though Arnold is well over retirement age, he's still earning a healthy income from acting gigs, both past and present.
He lives a somewhat quiet life nowadays, long after the scandal of his love child and divorce rocked his fan base, but Arnold is still working.
He has credits on a number of TV series in recent years, plus a handful of films from 2021 onward (though some were straight-to-video projects). Not to mention, Terminator: Dark Fate earned Arnold another hefty paycheck in 2019.
The other Terminator films also helped Arnold build his net worth exponentially; Terminator 2 landed him a $15 million paycheck. With only 700 words of dialogue, Arnold was making bank for his work.
Of course, he worked hard to get there; for the first Terminator film in 1984, Schwarzenegger is said to have earned only $75,000. Though that $75K would be worth about $218K today, it still wasn't much compared to some of Arnold's other projects.
His giant pile of cash got larger because of his portrayal of The Terminator, but Arnold actually earned way more on another project.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's Highest-Earning Project Was A Flop
Not all of Arnold's film projects have been good financial choices. The actor also turned down a massive franchise that could have made him even more money, but he passed in favor of a film that never even came to fruition.
One box office flop did turn out to help pad Arnold's pockets, though, even if critics still laugh at it today. In exchange for donning silver body paint for 25 days of filming, Arnold took home $25 million for Batman and Robin.
The 1997 movie might have embarrassed Arnold, AKA Mr. Freeze, but he claimed the paycheck made him the highest-earning star of his day.
Then again, there was another project that didn't flop but earned Arnold Schwarzenegger more money not from a flat-rate paycheck, but because of a smart royalty deal he negotiated. When he appeared in the film Twins with Danny DeVito, Arnold admitted that the studio was taking a bit of a risk with him, given that he wasn't a comedic actor.
Arnold claimed he said no to a paycheck, but asked for a percentage of the movie's profits instead. The result? A $43 million payout—40 percent of the movie's unexpectedly massive profit.
Does Arnold Schwarzenegger Still Get Royalties From Terminator?
For the first Terminator film, Arnold was paid a rather meager salary (compared to his earning power today), but the trend didn't continue with the following films. By the time Terminator 3 rolled around, Arnold was even savvier with his salary deals and struck a royalty agreement.
Not only did Arnold reportedly earn $29.25M for Terminator 3, but he also cashed out 20 percent of the royalties. With box office sales alone (not including streaming or DVD sales), Terminator 3 made $433.4 million worldwide.
That means Arnold may have earned more than $86 million in the epic deal. And while his royalty agreement hasn't been confirmed for subsequent Terminator movies, odds are that Schwarzenegger secured the bag and continues to take home royalties from at least films three and four as they're streamed to brand-new audiences.
How Else Does Arnold Schwarzenegger Make Money?
As if Arnold Schwarzenegger's massive film earnings weren't enough, the actor and retired politician has made cash in other ways, too. For one thing, speaking engagements easily pad his pockets to the tune of $200K plus the cost of a private jet.
There's also the matter of his stint as California's governor, a post he held from 2003 to 2011, which paid about $210K per year. That, along with various books released by Arnold during his bodybuilding days as well as his 2012 memoir, also earned the actor extra funds.
Though none of his recent projects have earned quite as much acclaim as Terminator has, Arnold's name still carries some star power—and demands a multi-million-dollar paycheck.
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