‘Wicked’ Stars Ariana Grande & Cynthia Erivo Received Equal Pay, Universal Says

deadline.com:

Universal made the unusual move of publicly addressing online speculation about pay disparity between its Wicked stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.

Rumors percolated on a Reddit post that Grande was paid $15 million for her turn as Glinda, while Erivo collected only $1 million for her role as Elphaba in the big-screen take of the $5 billion-grossing Broadway musical about the Wizard of Oz witches.

The two-part feature film production cost $320M before marketing spend. “Reports of pay disparity between Cynthia and Ariana are completely false and based on internet fodder.

The women received equal pay for their work on Wicked,” a Universal Pictures spokesperson said in a statement to Deadline. Deadline checked with another source connected to the film, and they verified the duo were paid the same.