George Clooney denies he and Brad Pitt received $35 million for ‘Wolfs’

The action-comedy was slated for a typical theatrical release until Apple decided to show it in theaters for a week from September 20 before streaming it on Apple TV+ from September 27.

At the “Wolfs” press conference at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday, Clooney addressed a New York Times report, citing unnamed sources familiar with the film’s development, that they were each paid $35 million for their roles.

“(It was) an interesting article and whatever her source was for our salary, it’s millions and millions and millions of dollars less than what was reported.

“And I’m just saying that because I think it’s bad for our industry if that’s what people think is the salary cap. I think it’s terrible, it’s going to make it impossible to make movies,” Clooney said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

His comments are the latest example of A-listers being more open about their pay. Last month, Cate Blanchett said that “nobody got paid anything” for starring in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

Clooney confirmed at the press conference that both he and Pitt have returned a portion of their salaries so that “Wolfs” can still receive a limited theatrical release, Metro reported.

“Yeah, we would have loved it. We wanted it. That’s why Brad and I gave back part of our salary to do it,” Clooney said of the theatrical release.

He added: “It’s a disappointment, of course, but on the other hand, a lot of people are going to see the film and we’re going to have a release in a few hundred theaters, so we have a release. But yeah, it would have been nice to have a wide release.”