Elijah Wood opens up about the salaries for the cast of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the figures are probably lower than what some fans might have expected. At the 2025 Texas Film Awards, Wood spoke with Business Insider and discussed how much he and his co-stars were paid to appear in the films. He explained that since all three installments were shot at once, the actors took smaller flat rates for the whole trilogy to make things more palatable for the studio. Renegotiating contracts in between films wasn’t really an option given the nature of the ambitious project.
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“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 said. “The benefit of that was that we were also signing up for something that was going to be a part of our lives forever.”
Business Insider notes that Orlando Bloom was paid $175,000 to play Legolas in the trilogy, while Sean Astin was paid $250,000 for his role as Sam. Wood was asked about speculation that he earned $250,000 just for The Fellowship of the Ring and told the outlet that the “figure wasn’t accurate.”
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Last year, Cate Blanchett got candid when talking about her own Lord of the Rings salary. While she didn’t share an exact number, she jokingly said she “didn’t get paid anything to do that movie” and “basically got free sandwiches” for the job. In lieu of a massive payday, Blanchett said the opportunity to work with director Peter Jackson was what drew her to the trilogy.
Actor salaries have been a hot talking point of late — particularly regarding comic book adaptations. Recently, it was revealed that Carrie Coon didn’t return to play Proxima Midnight in Avengers: Endgame because Marvel wouldn’t give her more money. John Malkovich has also admitted he turned down Marvel projects because the pay was too low. Oscar-nominated actor Djimon Hounsou shared that he “still struggles to make a living” despite having roles in Marvel and DC films.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy is a very unique case in the film industry. Filming three fantasy epics back-to-back-to-back was unheard of at the time, and there was no guarantee the movies would be successful. If New Line Cinema was going to take a chance on this investment, costs had to be kept in control, a tricky task to pull off considering the source material. The Lord of the Rings movies are massive, sweeping films featuring state-of-the-art visual effects and elaborate action set pieces. A lot of money had to be poured into those production elements, so the cast (most of whom were relatively unknown to mainstream audiences at the time) had to take the smaller salaries. Remarkably, each film in the trilogy has a production budget of $93-94 million.
It’s important to keep in mind that Wood, Blanchett, and the rest of their co-stars do not appear to have any animosity about their Lord of the Rings salaries. They understand the nature of the business and recognize that it was an incredible opportunity to be part of an era-defining film series. The Lord of the Rings trilogy opened up a lot of doors for the cast, paving a path for them to pursue other creative endeavors. That, and the memories made while shooting the films, sounds like it was more than enough for the stars.
