How Much Did Jason Momoa Get Paid for A Minecraft Movie?

The $12 Million Figure

The most specific answer to Jason Momoa's A Minecraft Movie salary is $12 million, reported by TheRichest in a ranking of his highest-paid film roles. TinseltownTales independently echoed the same number, reporting that Momoa 'reportedly earned a whopping $12 million' as Garrett 'The Garbage Man' Garrison — and noting that the figure made him the highest-paid actor in the film's ensemble.

Two outlets converging on the same unusual figure is a mild point in its favor; independently invented numbers rarely match to the digit. But convergence is not confirmation. Warner Bros. never disclosed the cast's salaries, and none of the trades — Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline — ever published a Momoa figure for the film. The $12 million exists in the familiar state of a widely repeated, never-verified report.

What the figure does not need is plausibility help. Twelve million dollars sits squarely in Momoa's established band as a franchise lead — below his biggest paydays, above his ensemble work — and it matches the scale of the production around it.

The Four-to-One Gap With Jack Black

The most striking detail in the reporting is not Momoa's fee but the gap beneath it. Both outlets report that Jack Black — Momoa's co-lead as Steve, the film's other marquee name — earned a reported $3 million, exactly one-quarter of Momoa's $12 million. For two actors sharing top billing, a four-to-one split demands an explanation.

The explanation is leverage, not screen time. When the Minecraft deal was negotiated, Momoa was coming off Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and a run of franchise leads; his quote reflected a decade of carrying $150-million-plus productions. Black, for all his beloved status, was negotiating as a comedy co-lead whose recent box-office history was softer. Studios pay for the last negotiation, not the filmography — and Momoa's last negotiation had been bigger.

There is also the role structure. Momoa's Garrett Garrison is the film's primary comic engine — the washed-up 1989 arcade champion whose delusions of grandeur drive the plot — while Black's Steve functions as the straight-man anchor to the game's mythology. The film was sold on Momoa's energy; the paycheck followed the poster.

The $150 Million Bet That Paid Off

The $12 million fee looks different against the film's economics. A Minecraft Movie was made for an estimated $150 million and grossed roughly $955 to $958 million worldwide after its April 4, 2025 release — the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2025 and the second-highest-grossing video game adaptation of all time. Momoa's salary represented about eight percent of the production budget, a standard share for the top-billed star of a franchise hopeful.

The gross also reframes the Black gap. On a film that earned nearly a billion dollars, the difference between $12 million and $3 million in upfront fees is noise — the real money for everyone involved was in whatever backend or bonus structures their deals contained, none of which were reported. If either actor had meaningful box-office participation, the upfront split understates their true earnings and possibly reverses the ranking.

For Warner Bros., the bet was straightforward: pay the proven franchise lead his quote, surround him with a beloved comedy co-lead at a value price, and let the IP do the rest. A $958 million gross on a $150 million budget suggests the casting math worked.

Momoa's Pay History: The Climb to $12 Million

The Minecraft fee caps a long, well-documented climb. Momoa's franchise breakthrough came as Aquaman, and after the first film became the highest-grossing DC film ever, he renegotiated his deal upward for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom — with ScreenRant, via Variety, reporting that his sequel salary doubled from the original. TheRichest's ranking of his highest-paid roles places that Aquaman sequel payday at number one, with the $12 million Minecraft Movie fee right behind it at number two.

The throughline is leverage compounding: each franchise success repriced the next negotiation, from Game of Thrones supporting player to a star who commands eight figures to headline. A $12 million fee for a co-lead comedy-adventure sits exactly where a star of his standing lands in the mid-2020s — firmly in eight-figure franchise-lead territory without touching the $20 million club.

The Minecraft role itself represents a deliberate swerve. After a run of brooding action leads, Momoa played the film's primary comic release valve — brash, self-important, and funny. Comedy leads are priced differently from action leads, and the $12 million suggests the market valued the swerve: a star showing new range is a star whose quote has room to grow.

Anatomy of the Report

The $12 million figure traveled through the entertainment press in the usual way: TheRichest published it as part of a ranked roundup of Momoa's highest-paid roles, TinseltownTales echoed it with additional context about the Black gap, and aggregator sites repeated both. At no point did anyone with firsthand knowledge confirm or deny the number.

The sourcing chain has one notable feature: specificity. Both outlets report not just Momoa's $12 million but Black's $3 million, the $150 million budget, and the $958 million gross — a cluster of mutually consistent numbers that reads more like a leaked call sheet than an invention. Fabricated salary reports tend to round aggressively and skip the supporting cast; this one names names and shows its arithmetic.

Still, specificity is not sourcing. Until Warner Bros., Momoa's representatives, or a trade with sourced reporting weighs in, the $12 million remains a report — a plausible, well-traveled, internally consistent report, but a report. The honest ledger keeps the label attached.

The Bottom Line

How much did Jason Momoa get paid for A Minecraft Movie? The reported answer is $12 million — published by TheRichest, echoed by TinseltownTales, and never confirmed by the studio or the trades. Jack Black's reported $3 million co-lead fee, exactly a quarter of Momoa's, is the detail that makes the report interesting: a four-to-one split between co-leads that reflects negotiating leverage, not screen time.

In context, the figure is pure Momoa: inside his $2 million-to-$15 million per-film band, about eight percent of a $150 million budget, and attached to a film that grossed roughly $958 million — the second-biggest video game adaptation ever. The $12 million is unconfirmed, and it is also exactly what the market would predict. Until someone with firsthand knowledge says otherwise, it stands as the reported answer, clearly labeled.

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