Arnold Schwarzenegger shocked Andy Cohen during an interview on “Watch What Happens Live” when he revealed that 1988’s “Twins” was personally the most profitable film of his career. “The Terminator” franchise may have the box office, but “Twins” delivered a check to Schwarzenegger north of $40 million.
“Well, number one was ‘Twins’ because we got no money for the salary but ownership with a piece of the back end,” Schwarzenegger said of the deal to star opposite Danny DeVito in the 1988 comedy directed by Ivan Reitman. “It was fantastic. We went all the way to the bank with that.”
When asked if he made more than $20 million from the success of “Twins,” Schwarzenegger said his final payday was more than that. Asked if it exceeded $40 million, the actor replied: “It was more than that. It was more than any movie I ever made.”
“Twins” stars Schwarzenegger and DeVito as fraternal twin brothers. While Schwarzenegger was an iconic action star at the time thanks to “The Terminator” films, “Predator” and “Conan the Barbarian,” his comedy chops were more or less untested at the box office.
“Why would they [cast me in a comedy?]” Schwarzenegger recently told his son, Patrick, during a chat for Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series. “They said, ‘Are you crazy? The more people that this guy kills on-screen, the more money we make. Why would we change that?’ That was the dialogue until Ivan Reitman and Danny DeVito came along.”
Nobody wanted to make a comedy with Schwarzenegger, so he came up with a plan: “If we don’t take any salaries, we can shoot the movie for $16.5 million. We worked out a deal where we got 40% of the backend of the movie. It happened to be the best deal we’ve ever made.”
“Twins” ended up grossing $216 million worldwide in theaters, and then profited even more on home video. Despite the film’s huge paydays, Schwarzenegger never got around to making a sequel with DeVito. They planned a follow-up titled “Triplets,” which was to add Eddie Murphy to the cast. But Reitman “passed away before we wanted to start shooting.”
Watch Schwarzenegger’s full appearance on “Watch What Happens Live” in the video below.