<p class="ingestion featured-caption">Cate Blanchett as Galadriel and Orlando Bloom as Legolas in "The Lord of the Rings."New Line Cinema</p><ul class="summary-list"><li>"The Lord of the Rings" is one of the biggest movie franchises of all time.</li><li>But Cate Blanchett said "no one got paid anything."</li></ul><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lord-of-the-rings-what-they-look-like-now-photos">"The Lord of The Rings"</a> is one of the most lucrative movie franchises of all time, so you might think its actors were paid big bucks — particularly considering the careers they've enjoyed since.</p><p>But a recent interview with <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cate-blanchett-lord-of-the-rings-paid-film-free-sandwiches-2024-8">Cate Blanchett</a>, who played the elf Galadriel, laid bare how relatively little the cast got paid for starring in movies that made almost $3 billion at the box office, and provided the momentum for "The Hobbit" trilogy, which made a further $2.9 billion.</p><p>The legacy of the beloved films, which cemented actors like<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/orlando-bloom-katy-perry-engaged-relationship-timeline-2019-2"> Orlando Bloom</a>, Elijah Wood, and Viggo Mortensen as Hollywood royalty, has also been somewhat tarnished by financial legal disputes over the years.</p><p>Rob Mitchell, the director of theatrical insights at Gower Street Analytics, told Business Insider the actors' salaries were likely relatively low because the film was a risk for the studio and it had a large cast. New Line Cinema spent $281 million on making the trilogy, according to <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/showdown/sd171963908/">Box Office Mojo</a>. That's the equivalent of $514 million today.</p><p>"For them to greenlight three 'Lord of the Rings' movies was a huge gamble, and basically the money was all going into the films. I can also understand they wouldn't necessarily have had huge paydays for the actors because it is an ensemble film," he said.</p><p>Here's what we know about who was paid what for "The Lord of the Rings."</p>