Danny DeVito’s contrast powered Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first 100M hit
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first $100 million hit came from a comedy with Danny DeVito—guess which one.
Back in 1988, Twins turned into an unlikely gold mine for Arnold Schwarzenegger. Instead of taking a paycheck, he skipped a salary and took a piece of the movie ’s profits — a bet that reportedly paid out more than $40 million. The buddy comedy also became his first film to cross $100 million at the U.S. box office.
Now 79, Schwarzenegger still says the movie clicked because of one thing above all: Danny DeVito. In a 2019 GQ sit-down looking back at his career, he explained that the contrast between them was the whole joke — and the whole draw.
“I came up with the idea to have Danny DeVito play not only someone that behaves opposite of me, but also looks totally the opposite,” Schwarzenegger said. “I thought that was very, very funny.”
Breaking into comedy
At the time, Hollywood saw Schwarzenegger strictly as the guy from The Terminator and other action hits. So he took matters into his own hands and asked his friend Ivan Reitman to direct him in a comedy. Reitman brought him five scripts; one was a story then titled The Experiment. The team retitled it Twins and paired Schwarzenegger with DeVito — and that odd-couple setup did the rest.
Schwarzenegger has said even the poster sold the gag: DeVito leaning on him under the line, “Only their mother can tell them apart.” Audiences got it immediately, and Twins became a true four-quadrant hit for the action star-turned-comic straight man.
The financial risk was real. With studios hesitant to back him in a comedic lead, Schwarzenegger agreed to forgo an upfront fee in exchange for a small ownership stake on the back end — the move that ultimately delivered that $40 million-plus windfall.
Twins didn’t just pay off; it opened a new lane. Two years later, Schwarzenegger returned to big laughs with Kindergarten Cop in 1990.