How Much Did Glen Powell Get Paid for Twisters?

The Short Answer

Let's be upfront: nobody has credibly confirmed Glen Powell's Twisters salary. No trade publication — not Variety, not THR, not Puck — has reported the number. What exists instead is a spread of estimates from entertainment outlets, and they don't agree.

The figure you'll see most often is ~$1.5 million, from FandomWire's salary breakdown, which framed it as an estimate ("estimates put his salary somewhere around $1.5 million"). But MarkMeets, in its profile of the actor, suggested Powell "is expected to receive a similar paycheck for Twisters" as the $5 million he reportedly earned for Anyone But You — implying a number more than three times higher.

That's a big enough gap to matter, and it tells you something important about where this number lives: in the realm of informed guesswork, not reporting. Both figures are plausible. Neither is sourced to anyone who would actually know. This article will lay out both, explain why each is plausible, and let you see the reasoning — rather than picking one and presenting it as fact.

The Case for ~$1.5 Million

The $1.5 million estimate has a certain logic to it. Consider the timeline: Powell signed on for Twisters in the wake of Top Gun: Maverick (2022) — where, by his own admission to The Hollywood Reporter, he'd "never made any significant amount of money on a movie, including Top Gun." His breakout as a leading man — as opposed to a scene-stealing supporting player — came with Anyone But You, the 2023 romantic comedy that surprised everyone by grossing $220 million worldwide.

Twisters was cast and largely negotiated before Anyone But You proved Powell could carry a film. At the time of the Twisters deal, he was a promising actor coming off a supporting role in a massive hit — not yet a proven lead. A $1.5 million quote fits that moment precisely: a significant raise from his earlier career (he's spoken about earning just $35,000 for Hidden Figures in 2016, his only paycheck that entire year), but not yet the multi-million leading-man money that Anyone But You's success would later justify.

The film's own economics support a moderate number. Twisters was a $200-million-plus production where the spectacle — the tornadoes — was the star as much as any actor. Disaster movies historically spend on effects over salaries, and Powell, while top-billed, was sharing the marquee with Daisy Edgar-Jones. In that structure, $1.5 million for a not-yet-proven lead is a coherent number.

The Case for ~$5 Million

The counter-argument, advanced by profiles such as MarkMeets, runs on timing and trajectory. By the time Twisters hit theaters in July 2024, Powell was a different commodity than when he'd signed. Anyone But You had turned him into a legitimate rom-com movie star, and the industry was openly anointing him Hollywood's next leading man. MarkMeets' suggestion — that his Twisters pay matched the reported $5 million Anyone But You figure — reflects the possibility that his deal included renegotiation triggers, or that late-stage deal terms were set after his value had already spiked.

There's also the co-lead dynamic. Daisy Edgar-Jones was herself coming off Where the Crawdads Sing ($140M+ worldwide) and Normal People acclaim. If the production was paying competitive rates to assemble two of the industry's hottest young leads for a summer tentpole, $1.5 million starts to look low — the kind of number that would have leaked as a "bargain" the way Corenswet's $750K did.

And then there's the simplest point: $5 million was reportedly his Anyone But You number, a film made for a fraction of Twisters' budget. It's unusual — though not unheard of — for an actor to take a 70% pay cut moving from a mid-budget rom-com to a $200M summer blockbuster as the male lead. Stars' quotes generally move in one direction.

The Late Bloomer: Powell's Salary Progression

Whatever the Twisters number was, it sits at the inflection point of one of Hollywood's great late-bloomer stories. Powell spent over a decade as a working actor — Scream Queens, Set It Up, Hidden Figures — earning working-actor money. His own account is vivid: $35,000 for Hidden Figures was his entire 2016 income, and the pandemic-era delay of Top Gun: Maverick nearly bankrupted him while he waited for the film (and its box office) to arrive.

Powell's own THR interview confirms the early-career figures; later numbers are entertainment-press estimates.

The Hit Man row hints at where Powell's career is heading structurally. By co-writing and producing with Richard Linklater, he added producer fees and backend points to his acting salary — the ownership playbook (see: Robbie, Zendaya). For an actor who spent years watching paydays from the outside, building equity in his own projects is the logical endgame. Whatever Twisters paid, the trajectory since points firmly upward.

About This Salary Figure

This is the honest summary:

• Widely cited estimate: ~$1.5 million for Twisters, explicitly labeled as an estimate by outlets including FandomWire and CelebsWiki.
• Higher-end suggestion: outlets such as MarkMeets have suggested a paycheck closer to his reported $5 million Anyone But You figure.
• Trade sourcing: none. No major trade has reported the number.
• Our assessment: the truth is likely somewhere in the $1.5M–$5M range, with the lower end better matching the deal's timing and the higher end better matching his post-Anyone But You market value. We present both because picking one would be dishonest.

The figures we can stand behind: $35,000 for Hidden Figures (Powell's own account via THR), the $5 million Anyone But You figure (widely reported), and Twisters' $372M+ box office (public record). If a trade outlet ever reports the actual Twisters salary, this page will be updated.

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