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Harrison Ford To Get Minimum $34 Million For ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’

By Anne Sewell
Published on: 00:42 PST, Dec 21, 2015

If veteran Hollywood actor Harrison Ford didn’t have plenty of money before, he’ll definitely be set up for life from his recent appearance in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Reportedly, Harrison Ford will get a flat fee of $25 million, together with a cut of the global earnings. Should the film end up being a mega-hit, which seems likely, he could end up with a tasty $60 million.

While figures in the media vary, Ford will definitely take home at least $34 million for reprising his famous role as Han Solo in the latest Star Wars epic.

As reported by the Guardian, Ford, 73, heads to the top of the list of high earners in Hollywood by taking a $25 million payment up front, but he will also grab 0.5 percent of the gross earnings from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Should the movie hit $2 billion at the box office worldwide, this would translate to another $9 million, and it is likely to just grow from there.

Just his “basic” salary of $25 million is around 56 times the fee earned by the two British newcomers, John Boyega and Daisy Ridley, who both got $450,000 up front. The two newbies are set to receive a cut of the proceeds once the new Star Wars grosses $1 billion worldwide. Carrie Fisher, who returned in the role of Leia Organa, “only” got $1.5 million.

It remains to be seen how much money Star Wars: The Force Awakens will actually make, but it is doing pretty well so far. Many are saying the latest episode will break Avatar’s $2.7 billion, a previous all-time world record. If it does, Harrison Ford will then hit the top 10 of the Hollywood highest-paid annual earners list, with only six actors ahead of him.

Meanwhile, Gulf News reports that Harrison Ford was initially a bit dubious about his initial appearance in the original Star Wars and the fan following that it brought. However, when he was asked to appear in the new episode, there was no hesitation on his part at all.

In fact, Ford says he has been having a whole load of fun making Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and despite the setback of suffering a broken leg and a plane crash earlier this year, it seems even he couldn’t resist the power of the famous Force.

When asked how easy it was for him to get back into the role, Harrison Ford spoke about joining Chewbacca in the cockpit again, saying, “Yeah, I mean, you dress up in those clothes and you look over your shoulder and there’s a guy in a dog suit and you kind of remember what the drill is. It comes back pretty quick.”

When the interviewer mentioned Ford appeared to be embracing the whole experience more than he has in the past, the 73-year-old said with a deadpan expression, “Maybe I just ran out of money.”

Ford went on to say that he has reprised other characters in the past, including the role of Indiana Jones and said “there is no issue with coming back to revisit a character as long as there’s a development that makes it interesting for the audience.”

He said, however, in the case of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this was “very ambitious in every sense” but added that the director, J.J. Abrams, is a “hard-working, highly skilled filmmaker.” Ford added that the young actors who joined the cast were “really great,” so it has been a pleasure to see the whole Star Wars experience relived.

When told screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan had said Han Solo was always his favorite Star Wars character to write for, Harrison Ford laughed and said, “That’s because he could get me to do almost anything.”

“I forgive him for everything, except for the Ewoks.”

However, for a multi-million dollar payoff like Harrison Ford is set to receive, even Ewoks would surely be acceptable and may the Force be with his bank account indeed.

Just for fun, watch Harrison Ford in casting for the role as Han Solo in the original Star Wars back in 1977, along with Mark Hamill playing Luke Skywalker. His parting words are, “Well who’s going to pay me.” Now we know.

[Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images]

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