When looking at some of the biggest performers in film history, Harrison Ford's name is one that immediately stands out. Having been in the Star Wars franchise, anchored the Indiana Jones franchise, and even led the Blade Runner franchise to its iconic standing, Ford has seemingly done it all in the business.
Star Wars helped Ford become a major star in Hollywood, and Han Solo is one of the most popular characters in history. Despite the character's popularity, Ford's first go around as the character did not net him a lot of money.
Let's look back at how much Harrison Ford made for A New Hope.
Harrison Ford Is An Icon
Having been acting professionally since the 60s and having played several iconic characters, Harrison Ford is a performer who has had a legendary career. Getting the right role at the right time is key in Hollywood, and Harrison Ford was able to make this happen time and time again during his illustrious career.
1973's American Graffiti was a great way to get noticed by mainstream audiences, but Ford really took off once he landed a few different iconic roles earlier in his career. Han Solo in the Star Wars franchise, Indiana Jones in his own franchise, and Rick Deckard in the Blade Runner franchise have all played a part in shaping Ford's amazing legacy in Hollywood.
Even outside of major franchises, the actor had a way of landing in huge movies, and he was able to stack up the hits through the years. Thanks to this, Ford has amassed an incredible fortune that few in Hollywood can match.
As great and diverse as his body of work has been, Ford's time as Han Solo in Star Wars is still arguably his most popular character to date.
He Made Millions As Han Solo
One of the benefits of playing an iconic character is that the actor in the role is going to make a substantial amount of money over time. These major franchise roles are so hard to land, and while the pay might not be great at first, over time, it came blossom into a staggering amount of money that will set someone up for a lifetime of comfort.
Now, Harrison Ford's time playing Han Solo in the Star Wars franchise is as iconic as it gets, but this does not mean that Ford was pulling down the big bucks at first. We will touch on his salary for A New Hope shortly, but even after the success of that film, Ford was only making around $500,000 for the sequel films. That's a pretty small salary, sure, but things exploded over time.
Variety reports that Ford's return to the character for The Force Awakens landed him a payday between $10 million and $20 million, which is substantially more than he made all those years ago. Ford's salary for The Rise of Skywalker is not known at this time, but judging on what he made for The Force Awakens, we have to imagine that Disney paid him some serious money for his return.
Circling back to A New Hope, fans will be pretty surprised to learn just how little Ford was paid for his first performance as Han Solo.
His 'A New Hope' Salary Was Tiny
So, how much money did Harrison Ford pull down for A New Hope? Well, instead of making millions of dollars for what became an iconic piece of cinema history, Ford was paid a small amount of money for his performance in the film.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Harrison Ford was only making about $1,000 per week on set. In total, this means that Ford made roughly $10,000 for his first performance as Han Solo. Now, an inflation calculator does show that this would be akin to a performer making over $40,000 in 2021, but given what the movie turned into, it's quite easy to see that Ford was grossly underpaid for his first time playing the iconic smuggler.
As we already covered, Ford would go on to make a crazy amount of money while playing Han Solo, and the opportunities that arose for the actor thanks to the success of A New Hope are worth far more than what he was actually paid for the movie. Thanks to his tireless work and his immense success, Harrison Ford is sitting at a net worth of $300 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Han Solo is one of the most iconic characters in film history, and it all started with Harrison Ford and his small salary all those years ago.