Highest-paid Superman cast member revealed: report

All of the cast were reportedly paid less than the film’s director, James Gunn

The highest-paid member of the Superman cast has been revealed - and it’s not the Man of Steel.

The much-anticipated comic book film, which serves as a reboot of the DC Cinematic Universe, has performed impressively at the box office since its debut last week. It has so far earned $155 million in the US and has made an additional $250 million globally.

A new report by Variety digs into the finances behind the film. It found that the film cost $225 million to make, as well as another $125 million to market around the world.

Sources also revealed the salaries paid to top cast and crew. Unusually for a blockbuster, the top earner was the film’s writer-director James Gunn, who was reportedly paid $15 million. That’s on top of the seven-figure salary Gunn is already paid as the co-CEO of DC Studios.

The cast’s salaries were reportedly relatively modest for a film of this scale. Both David Corenswet, who plays Superman, and Rachel Brosnahan, who pays Lois Lane, were paid $750,000.

The highest-paid cast member was Nicholas Hoult, who plays the villainous Lex Luthor and took home $2 million.

Nicholas Hoult, Rachel Brosnahan and David Corenswet at the the LA premiere of 'Superman' in July 2025 (Maya Dehlin Spach/Getty Images)

The film has been widely praised by critics, with The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey handing it a four-star review.

“Superman is a manifesto for a franchise,” wrote Loughrey. “It had no other choice but to be. The weight of expectation is so heavy at this point that even the audience might feel a little tension in their shoulders as they shuffle in to take their seats.

“Superman needs to save the comic book genre from itself; from box office flop after box office flop. Superman needs to do right by one of pop culture’s greatest heroes. Superman needs to provide DC with a fresh start, a universe co-headed by its director James Gunn (previously behind the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy and 2021’s The Suicide Squad). Superman needs to pacify the internet horde still convinced the character’s previous guardian, Zack Snyder, was betrayed by maleficent conspirators and not simply the ebb and flow of the industry.

“God, it’s exhausting even to think about. But every spinning plate here – and this is a dense, busy film – has been carefully balanced on the fingers of America’s favourite caped Boy Scout, with his matinee idol grin and heart as big as a blue whale.

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“Above all, Gunn’s Superman understands exactly how this character and this world should make us feel, that there’s always pride to be found in hope, however naive its pursuit might feel on a planet that kills empathy on the regular.”