The Lord of the Rings is one of the most popular franchises in cinematic history. So many careers have been launched and defined by the iconic series, including that of Orlando Bloom’s. His portrayal of the beloved sharpshooting elf put the young actor on the map but despite his immense contributions to the original trilogy, the performer only made $175,000 for all three of the films combined.
“Nothing, I got nothing,” he said. “175 grand… Listen, greatest gift of my life. Are you kidding me? I’d do it again for half the money.”
The flicks were definitely a great starting point for Bloom, who was basically a no-name before the Tolkien movies took off. Following the success of The Lord of the Rings, the performer was able to land another huge role as Will Turner in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. For those films, he says he was paid a lot more. In fact, it was apparently enough for him “to buy a couple houses, it was that kind of money.”
The actor has clearly done pretty well for himself thus far and as it stands, his net worth is around $35 million, thanks to the aforementioned pirate series as well as his reprisal of Legolas in The Hobbit trilogy. As such, there’s little doubt that Bloom was compensated more for his return than he was the first time around.
For now, however, it looks like he’s done with Middle-earth. His latest project is called Carnival Row and it’s on Amazon Prime, where he stars alongside Cara Delevingne. Ironically enough, the streaming service is also in the midst of developing a Lord of the Rings television series. It’s currently unknown if Bloom will make an appearance in it, but fans would definitely be all for it. That is, as long as he gets compensated fairly this time around.