Hollywood Breakdown
'Crazy Rich Asians' co-writer leaves sequel over pay parity
'Crazy Rich Asians' was a huge box office hit, but one of the screenwriters won't be returning for the two sequels after she learned her male screenwriter had been offered more than 8 times what she was making for the job.
By Matthew Belloni • • 5m ListenA new study from the Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film shows some improvement for women both on and off the screen. The study found women now represent 45% of all speaking characters on television, which is up five-percent from 2017-18. But that doesn't mean there's good news everywhere. 'Crazy Rich Asians' co-screenwriter Adele Lim won't be returning for the sequels after learning her fellow screenwriter had been offered way more money than her. The other writer, Peter Chiarelli, is a more experienced feature writer--Warner Bros was said to be offered him $800,000 to $1 million. Lim, on the other hand, was offered about $110,000. While Chiarelli does have more movie credits to his name, they both worked on the first 'Crazy Rich Asians,' which made almost $240 million worldwide. The fact that their fees were still so far apart for the sequels is what has a lot of people upset.
