As one of the greatest movies of all time, Back to the Future is one film that everyone needs to see at least once. The movie used incredible stars to get the ball rolling, and even though some recasts took place as the film blossomed into a franchise, it maintained its charm and went down as a classic.
Michael J. Fox was the star of the franchise, and despite bringing name value to the table, he wasn’t paid much for the first film.
Let’s see how much Michael J. Fox made to play Marty McFly!
He Made $250,000 For The First Film
Back to the Future is still considered one of the greatest films of all time, and upon its release, it wound up becoming a huge success at the box office. Despite everything that it had going for it, Michael J. Fox was not paid nearly as much as some would think to star as Marty McFly in the classic.
Going into the project, Michael J. Fox was already an established name in the entertainment industry. Beginning back in 1982 and preceding his time in Back to the Future and Teen Wolf by three years, Fox was starring on the hit series, Family Ties, as Alex P. Keaton. This was the show that put him on the map, and his film career took things to another level .
Despite being a famous face already, it has been reported that Fox only took home $250,000 for his first time playing Marty McFly. We have seen modern franchises do something similar, but to be fair, stars like Chris Hemsworth, who didn’t make much for Thor, weren’t huge names like Fox was. Most would have assumed that he would get more, but this was not the case.
Nevertheless, Back to the Future was released back in 1985, and it wound up taking the world by storm and turning into a classic in no time. Everything about the movie remains as sharp as ever, and thanks to its success and its ending, it didn’t take much time at all for some sequels to get put into discussion.
He Made $5 Million For Each Sequel
Now that Fox was a proven movie star with both Back to the Future and Teen Wolf moving things along, it was time for the actor to bump his salary up significantly. For his role in Back to the Future Part II, Michael J Fox would be paid a handsome $5 million, which was an impressive number at the time.
Much like the first film, Back to the Future Part II became a huge success at the box office. The film was released the same year that Family Ties came to an end, meaning that Fox was now free of his television commitments and could continue to focus on projects on the big screen. After grossing over $330 million, fans were hyped to see a third installment in the franchise.
The following year, Back to the Future Part III hit theaters, and for his third time playing Marty McFly, Fox once again pocketed $5 million. These were some huge paydays for the actor, and he earned every single cent of it. That third film made over $240 million, making for another success in the franchise.
As it stands now, the Back to the Future franchise is a proper trilogy, but there have been some rumblings about the franchise potentially doing something new.
Is A Reboot In The Works?
After a deepfake came out of Tom Holland and Robert Downey Jr. playing Marty McFly and Doc Brown, fans were buzzing about the two potentially playing the leads in a modern take on the franchise. Tom Holland opened up about this when speaking with BBC Radio 1.
According to Holland, “I’d be lying if I said there hadn’t been conversations in the past about doing some sort of remake, but that film is the most perfect film- or one of the most perfect films, one that could never be made better. That said, if [Robert Downey Jr.] and I could just shoot that one scene that they remade for fun - he could pay for it cause he’s got loads of money - I would do it for my fee and we could remake that scene. I think we owe it to deep fake because they did such a good job. … I think I’m gonna speak to Robert and see if we can try to recreate something for deep fake.”
However, a few years back, Robert Zemeckis talked about the potential for another film, saying, “Oh, God no. That can’t happen until both Bob and I are dead. And then I’m sure they’ll do it, unless there’s a way our estates can stop it.”
Whether another film comes along remains to be seen, but one thing we do know is that the next Marty McFly better make a whole lot more than Michael J. Fox did for his first performance as the iconic character.