The Terminator may be Arnold Schwarzenegger's most popular film worldwide, but it is not the one that earned him the highest payment. In fact, that film is 1988's Twins, filmmaker Ivan Reitman's comedy, also starring Danny DeVito, Bonnie Bartlett, and Tony Jay. Oddly enough, Schwarzenegger said on the show Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen that he did not receive any upfront "salary" for the film but rather a portion of its profits. As the actor said "we had gotten no money, no salary" for Twins, the show's host intervened, remarking, “You got a piece of the backend.” The Terminator star confirmed it, calling it a "fantastic" amount of money. While Schwarzenegger did not reveal the exact number, he confirmed that it exceeded $40 million. He emphasised the point, saying, "It was more than in any movie I’ve ever made."
In an earlier interview with Business Insider, he took a bet on Twins as he agreed to take no salary but rather a part of the film's profit as he wanted to show producers in Hollywood that he could do comedies as well.
A buddy comedy, Twins follows an innocent person's (Schwarzenegger) search for his estranged fraternal twin (DeVito), who is a small-time criminal and a womanizer.
Schwarzenegger also talked about a hypothetical sequel to Twins, saying it would have been titled Triplets and featured Eddie Murphy if not for Reitman's death before their plan to begin production.