News > Jet Li's $13.4 million salary breaks more than he ever could

Written by John Lichman

To star in The Warlords, wire-fu master Jet Li received a 100 million Yuan pay-day. That's 6.5 million Pounds, or roughly $13.4 million. That's $3 million more than Fearless made in its' opening weekend, which was the last wuxia film Li helmed. And we won't even bring up War's numbers. 

Warlords is working off a 300 million Yuan budget, according to the BBC, which means half of the film's budget is going solely to Li half of which is going to its' cast. While director Peter Chan says it is instrumental to cast Li in order to gain an international audience, that hasn't been the case since Li made his "debut" in Lethal Weapon 4 or the mid-90s Chinese action explosion when Jackie Chan found fleeting mainstream respect. 

Warlords premieres next month in Asia. Li's next American film, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, has a tentative August 1, 2008 release date but is still filming. Production may cease as director Rob Cohen reads this article and can't stop giggling like a school girl while he tells the 100 million Yuan man to stand next to Brendan Fraser. 

edit, 6:03pm: Thanks TFG. You always appear when money and fractions are involved.