The movie adaptation of "Fifty Shades of Grey" has proved to be a commercial success, and lead actors Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan will likely be asking for a seven-figure pay raise before they embark on filming the planned two sequels, the Hollywood Reporter said.

The pair made $250,000 each for their performance in Universal's erotic movie, and both have signed a three-picture deal. But given that "Fifty Shades" is on track to grossing some $550 million worldwide, Johnson and Dornan will probably be looking to renegotiate, an unnamed insider told the magazine.

"It was a very basic franchise starter deal," the source noted about the actors' contracts. "Look at 'Twilight' and 'Hunger Games,' and that's where it is heading."

The insider suggests that Johnson and Dornan might take a page out of Jennifer Lawrence's playbook. The Oscar-winning actress earned $500,000 for the first installment of the film adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's "Hunger Games" series; by the time she was working on the second movie, titled "Catching Fire," Lawrence's paycheck was up to $10 million.

Producers at Universal might want to be careful, however, given that "Fifty Shades of Grey" saw a steep 70 percent drop-off between its Valentine's Day weekend opening and its second frame, the Hollywood Reporter detailed. These numbers "might suggest the initial curiosity among the books' fans hasn't translated into a full-fledged film franchise," the magazine said.

The movie may also have suffered from what the British version of the Huffington Post called a lack of chemistry between its two principal actors. "Fifty Shades" did not manage "to get us hot under the collar, for the simple reason that (Dornan) and (Johnson) just didn't seem to fancy each other enough," the website judged.

But since director Sam Taylor-Johnson reportedly clashed with author E. L. James and is thus not expected to lead the franchise's second installment, "the last thing Universal chair Donna Langley wants is two unhappy stars," the Hollywood Reporter insisted. So Johnson and Dornan will stand a good chance of a successful renegotiation, the magazine noted.

Producer Dana Brunetti, meanwhile, would not comment on potential changes to the actors' contracts but admitted he hopes to keep the first movie's $40 million budget from skyrocketing due to salary increases.

Related