I had to re-read this and check my glasses after scrolling through The Wrap’s reporting about Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, and Idina Menzel’s salaries for “Frozen 3” and “Frozen 4.”
Let me get this straight: all three have signed deals worth over $60M each to return for the two sequels? That’s unprecedented, and I don’t believe it has ever been matched before in animation history.
The closest examples I could think of are Tom Hanks earning $20M for “Toy Story 4” and Eddie Murphy getting $15M for “Shrek 2.” But what Bell, Gad, and Menzel are getting? It’s unprecedented.
If you’re dishing out $100M per movie just for voice work, what’s the actual budget going to be? “Frozen 2” was made for around $150M, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the next two installments each cost $300M or more to produce.
That said, the Frozen franchise is widely considered one of Disney’s most lucrative properties, with sequels long in development. “Frozen II” earned $1.4 billion globally in 2019, following the original film, which won an Oscar and brought in $1.3 billion at the box office. That’s not even counting the merchandise sales, which one estimate has at around $11 billion in revenue.
The $60 million fee for the two new sequels — which includes upfront fees and back end bonus payments in each case — is a steep increase from the trio’s paydays on “Frozen 2,” which netted each $15 million.
Bell, Gad, and Menzel are all paid the same amount for each “Frozen” film, providing both speaking and singing voices for the beloved characters Anna, Elsa, and Olaf the snowman. Jennifer Lee, who directed the first two films, is set to return as director.
“Frozen 3” is set for release over Thanksgiving 2027. “Frozen 4” does not yet have a release date.