Bruce Willis' Biggest Die Hard Request Made A Studio Head Lose His Cool

Although "Die Hard" is now considered one of the most successful and influential action thrillers of all time, it's worth remembering that nothing about its success was guaranteed. Because the movie was technically based on a sequel novel to the 1966 bestseller "The Detective," which was turned into a '68 movie starring Frank Sinatra, the studio was forced to offer the main role in "Die Hard" to Frank Sinatra first. Sinatra (who was pushing 70 at the time) said no, and few big-name celebrities wanted to be the guy to take his place. 

After Paul Newman, Harrison Ford, and Richard Gere all declined the main role, the studio found Bruce Willis. Willis was already famous thanks to the hit ABC series "Moonlighting," but he had not yet made a major jump to film and it wasn't clear if he could pull it off. His first big film role had been "Blind Date," a 1987 rom-com with Kim Basinger that had a middling box office performance and a lackluster critical response. The idea that Willis could be the lead of a big-budget action film, playing a tough-guy cop no less, had yet to be proven.

Still, Willis went and asked for a $5 million paycheck and refused to back down. This might not sound like a huge ask in the days of Robert Downey Jr. making $80 million from a single film, but in 1987 it was the sort of number only established stars like Robert Redford could've asked for. Willis demanding $5 million appeared to be the height of hubris, as Fox chairman Barry Diller sure thought at the time. "Are you out of your f**king mind?" he reportedly yelled (according to the NY Post) when he heard the sum. 

Luckily for Willis, the studio was desperate to hurry up and start making the movie already, so they reluctantly agreed. In a result that seems obvious now, "Die Hard" ended up a huge smash hit: it made $143 million at the box office from its $28 million budget, and that's not even counting all the VHS and DVD sales that'd come after. It spawned four sequels and guaranteed that Bruce Willis would never struggle for a big paycheck again. Ten years later he'd star in "The Sixth Sense," where he made $14 million up front and over $100 million total, by securing a deal where he'd also be paid a portion of the movie's earnings. 

"Die Hard" also ensured that Willis would stay on the big screen rather than be relegated to TV like so many of his "Moonlighting" coworkers. It was a relief considering that his "Blind Date" performance seemingly argued that he wasn't fit for the transition. "Bruce went and did his television character, and on a big screen it didn't work," said "Die Hard" director John McTiernan (again, via the NY Post). "Once the audience could see Bruce, closely and in higher definition, they didn't like him. They didn't like the smartass thing." Turns out they did like the smartass thing; it just took a little fine-tuning.