The Harry Potter franchise cast a long shadow over the careers of its young stars, but Emma Watson has taken a giant leap beyond its box office legacy--and is now a few million richer.
The 27-year-old Brit, who played Hermione Granger in the top-grossing adaptations of J.K. Rowling's wizarding novels, has a new billion-dollar movie to her name: Beauty and the Beast. Disney's movie-musical remake tallied $1.26 billion at the global box office, making it the top-grossing movie of the year so far. Its total bests each of the Harry Potter movies' unadjusted grosses, save for the final installment.
Watson's paycheck from the live-action Disney film, in addition to fees collected for tech drama The Circle, helped her pocket $14 million pretax between June 2016 and June 2017--good enough to rank among the world's highest-paid actresses for the first time ever.
"Every kid who grew up on Harry Potter felt instantly comfortable seeing Emma Watson on screen; even if she wasn't Hermione Granger, she was Belle," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at industry analytics firm ComScore. "[Disney] could have plugged in any actor into that role but it wouldn't have had that magic."
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Bookworm Belle was a fitting role for Watson, who acts as global goodwill ambassador for UN Women and runs a monthly online book club called Our Shared Shelf. No wonder Disney was willing to dish out a reported $3 million upfront for the role, which insiders tell Forbes was supplemented by several million more once it met certain box office benchmarks.
"I didn't have to learn a single lyric because I already knew the songs by heart," Watson told CNN. The real music to Disney's mouse ears: the movie has so far grossed more than $504 million domestically per ComScore, making Watson a sound investment.
For Watson, a starring role as Belle marks a return to big-budget movies since 2014's Noah, which despite a $125 million price tag grossed just $362.6 million worldwide--a poor ratio compared to Beauty and the Beast's success on a $160 million production budget.
The last time Forbes tallied her earnings in 2007, Watson banked a modest $4 million. This year, she ties for No. 6 among the highest-earning women in film with Atomic Blonde star Charlize Theron, ahead of heavyweights including Amy Adams and Cate Blanchett.
Together, the world's 10 highest-paid actresses tallied a combined $172.5 million between June 1, 2016, and June 1, 2017, before fees and taxes. Earnings estimates are based on data from Nielsen, ComScore, Box Office Mojo and IMDB, as well as interviews with industry insiders. All figures are pretax; fees for agents, managers and lawyers are not deducted.
"The last day that we finished on set was actually the anniversary of the day that I was cast as Hermione," Watson recalled to Metro. "I felt this strange sense of completion and that I’d come full circle."
Unfortunately for Watson, not all circles are perfect. Her role opposite Tom Hanks and John Boyega in the adaptation of Dave Eggers' novel The Circle failed to perform, flopping at just $20.5 million at the box office.
Still, its failure doesn't spell a killing curse for Watson. Beauty and the Beast's profitability will go a long way with studios looking to cast Watson. For the sake of audiences and fans alike, be our guest.
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