Elijah Wood reveals ‘Lord of the Rings’ salaries were surprisingly low

Not so precious.

Elijah Wood recently revealed that the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, which made a huge profit from 2001 to 2003, did not end up in a big pay day for the cast.

“Because we weren’t making one movie and then renegotiating a contract for the next, it wasn’t the sort of lucrative scenario that you could sort of rest easy for the rest of your life,” Wood, 44, explained to Business Insider at the 2025 Texas Film Awards on Wednesday.

Wood, who played Frodo Baggins, said that the film’s director Peter Jackson and production company New Line Cinema took “a real gamble” adapting J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel in 1999.

One of the sacrifices that came along was that the cast, which included Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom and Cate Blanchett, would not be granted “massive salaries.” A second term was to shoot all three films back to back.

That way, there was no time for the stars to renegotiate their contracts — despite the first project garnering massive success.

Between “The Fellowship of the Ring,” “The Two Towers” and “The Return of the King,” the franchise brought in $2.9 billion worldwide, making it one of the highest-earning film franchises in movie history.

“The benefit of that was that we were also signing up for something that was going to be a part of our lives forever,” Wood added, defending his low paycheck as “understandable.”

He added: “It doesn’t matter.”

In August, while on “Watch What Happens Live,” host Andy Cohen asked Blanchett, 55, who played the elf Galadriel, if “Lord of the Rings” was her biggest payday.

“Are you kidding me?” the actress replied. “No, no one got paid anything to do that movie.”

“I wanted to work with the guy who made ‘BrainDead,'” Blanchett explained, referring to Jackson. “I mean, I basically got free sandwiches, and I got to keep my ears…. No, no one got paid anything.”

Wood was asked about Blanchett’s remarks, and noted that “statements like that are not made with any kind of ire.”

“It’s such an honor to have been a part of those films, and they represent some of the best experiences of my life,” he said.

Bloom, 48, who portrayed warrior elf Legolas in the trilogy, also got candid about his paycheck while on The Howard Stern Show in 2019.

The actor revealed he was only paid $175,000 for all three movies. “I got nothing,” teased Bloom. However, he did call the opportunity “the greatest gift” of his life and he would have still done it for “half the money.”

Sean Astin, who played Samwise Gamgee, previously said he ranked in $250,000 for his work, per Variety. When asked if he made the same, Wood told Business Insider that figure was not accurate.