American epic romance, 1997’s Titanic achieved significant critical and commercial success. The fact that the movie registered 14 Academy Award nominations while winning 11 Oscar awards itself speaks a lot about its place in the world of cinema.
A milestone in the careers of the leading actors, Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet, there’s no doubt that the film will always hold a special place in their hearts.
However, when it comes to the salaries of the leads, it appears that Di Caprio bagged a significantly higher amount than Winslet. But why? Isn’t that unfair for Winslet? Before answering that, let’s see how Di Caprio actually ended up with $37,500,000 more than his female co-actor.
Kate Winslet’s salary was half a million less than Leonardo Di Caprio’s initially
Directed by James Cameron, Titanic recorded a $28,638,131 box office collection on the first weekend of its release. Moreover, the film’s all-time domestic box office collection amounted to $674,396,795 whereas the all-time worldwide collection added up to a staggering $2.2 billion.
As reported by IMDb, the leading actress of the movie, Kate Winslet was paid $2 million for her role of Rose DeWitt Bukater. Not yet a big name in the industry, Winslet’s pay was actually just half a million less than Leonardo DiCaprio who earned a base salary of $2.5 million.
However, what’s important to note is that the half-a-million gap between the amount earned by the two actors kept on growing over the years. Mainly because DiCaprio reportedly earned over $37.5 million in the form of backend profit when the film turned out to be a huge box-office success.
So, this means that The Wolf of Wall Street actor managed to earn a total of $40 million, leaving a gap of $38 million with his co-actor Winslet’s pay!
Kate Winslet has ‘never concerned’ herself with money matters
There’s no doubt that the gender pay gap is a concerning phenomenon that still exists in the 21st century. Bringing the issues to the forefront, the Don’t Look Up actress Jennifer Lawrence opened up on the issues of inequality in pay during a Vogue interview.
And back in 2015, when Kate Winslet was asked about her views on the subject, the Sense and Sensibility actress replied that she has never concerned herself with money matters. Moreover, during her conversation with BBC Newsbeat, she said that she was having problems with these conversations and added that maybe “it’s a British thing. I don’t like talking about money; it’s a bit v-lgar isn’t it?”
“I have never concerned myself with monetary matters. I almost feel like I can’t comment on other people’s comments, but I admire people who publicly stand up for themselves.
I’ve never been in the situation where I feel the need to make those types of comments. I’m fortunate. I have a nice life and career and I’m blessed to be 40 years old and still doing it.”
Well, it’s safe to assume that Winslet might not exactly be bothered with her $38 million pay gap with DiCaprio. However, the question remains, are such pay gaps based on gender detrimental to the future of cinema?
