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Billboard Women in Music 2025
Elijah Wood is the latest cast member to be asked about the surprisingly low salaries the cast of “The Lord of the Rings” earned as part of Peter Jackson’s landmark trilogy, which went on to gross nearly $3 billion at the worldwide box office. Cate Blanchett, who starred as Galadriel in the franchise, went viral last August for saying on “Watch What Happens Live” that “no one got paid anything to do that movie.” She joked: “I basically got free sandwiches and I got to keep my [elf] ears” as pay.
Speaking to Business Insider at the 2025 Texas Film Awards, Wood confirmed his “Rings” salary was not a big one, despite leading the trilogy as Frodo. However, the actor doesn’t mind at all.
“Because we weren’t making one movie and then renegotiating a contract for the next, it wasn’t the sort of lucrative scenario that you could sort of rest easy for the rest of your life,” Wood explained, referencing how Jackson and New Line Cinema shot all three “Rings” movie back-to-back. As such, there was never time for one of the films to open before the next started filming, thus no opportunity for contract re-negotiations based on the franchise’s box office success.
Wood said New Line Cinema made a “a real gamble” shooting all three movies at once, and the studio was able to take such a risk by offering “not massive salaries” to the actors. Wood added: “The benefit of that was that we were also signing up for something that was going to be a part of our lives forever.”
In a 2019 interview on “The Howard Stern Show,” Orlando Bloom, who played Legolas, said he was paid just $175,000 for all three movies. Sean Astin, who shared many scenes with Wood as Samwise Gamgee, later said he got about $250,000 for the films. Business Insider asked Wood if he made the same as Astin, to which the actor said that figure was not accurate and “it doesn’t matter” because the value “Rings” had his on his career and life is priceless.
Regarding Blanchett’s sandwich comment, Wood called it “hilarious” and said “statements like that are not made with any kind of ire. It’s such an honor to have been a part of those films and they represent some of the best experiences of my life.”
