Elijah Wood Says “Lord of the Rings” Paycheck Wasn't Enough to 'Rest Easy for the Rest of Your Life'

Playing Frodo Baggins surprisingly didn't make Elijah Wood instantly wealthy. Wood, 44, told Business Insider at the 2025 Texas Film Awards that his pay for the Lord of the Rings franchise was not massive, despite it becoming one of the highest-grossing film series of all time. "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 explained, noting how director Peter Jackson took "a real gamble" shooting the Rings trilogy simultaneously.

With no time between one film opening and the next one filming, Wood and his costars never had a chance to renegotiate salaries based on how box office performance. The Lord of the Rings trilogy ultimately grossed a historic $2.9 billion worldwide, which paled in comparison to the films' ambitious budget of $281 million, at the time.



Wood played hobbit Frodo Baggins in the star-studded franchise based on J.R.R.

Tolkien's novels, along with Sean Astin (who played fellow hobbit Samwise Gamgee), Orlando Bloom (Elven warrior Legolas), Viggo Mortenson (Aragorn, the heir of Isildur) and Ian McKellen (Gandalf). Despite making "not massive salaries," Wood said, "The benefit of that was that we were also signing up for something that was going to be a part of our lives forever.” Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Several Lord of the Rings cast have commented on what they made while filming the epic fantasy series. While on the Jim and Sam Show in 2018, Astin, 54, revealed he earned around $250,000, which the actor said wasn't enough to cover his mortgage on a house he had purchased before filming started. In a 2019 interview on The Howard Stern Show , Bloom, 48, said he was paid $175,000 across all three movies.

"I got nothing, nothing, nothing," the Gran Turismo actor joked with Stern, adding the project was the "greatest gift of my life." When asked by Business Insider about whether he was also paid $250,000, Wood said the sum was not accurate and also "doesn't matter." "It's such an honor to have been a part of those films, and they represent some of the best experiences of my life," Wood said.

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