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Most of the time in Hollywood, when people come together to try and make a classic movie, they fail. Instead, movies that go down in history usually need to grow organically in some way.When the movie Elf was produced, nobody involved had any way to know that the movie would go on to be so popular. In fact, a huge star rejected the chance to star in Elf and a lot of the movie's best moments were improvised on set.Unfortunately for the people who made Elf, it turns out that things on set weren't always as merry as the movie wound up being. A perfect example of that is that the movie's two main stars, James Caan and Will Ferrell, reportedly didn't get along.Considering that Caan reportedly didn't like Ferrell, a lot of people may assume he regretted starring in Elf. As it turns out, however, starring in Elf was so financially rewarding for Caan that he certainly was happy that he starred in the holiday classic.
The Truth About Will Ferrell And James Caan's Feud On The Set Of Elf
When James Caan passed away in 2022, movie fans all over the world mourned his passing. The reason for that is simple, during Caan's incredible career, he was excellent in a slew of movies that have gone down in history.
Since Caan was such a universally acclaimed actor, most people who watched Elf assumed that he was flexing his skills once again. After all, Caan's character really seemed like he was bothered by the things that Ferrell's character Buddy did.
As it turned out, it seems very likely that portraying a character who was irritated by Ferrell wasn't much of a stretch for Caan. At least, that was the case initially.
According to a report The Sun published, James Caan found Will Ferrell "unfunny and boring". On top of that, that same report claimed that Caan approached the Saturday Night Live veteran to tell him how unimpressed he was with Ferrell's comedy skills. “I don’t find you funny.”
As Slash Film once observed, however, Caan clearly was amused by Ferrell's performance in at least one scene. When Ferrell's character gets his finger pricked in a doctor's office, if you look closely it is obvious that Caan is struggling to not laugh and is hiding his face from the camera.
According to Caan, however, he wasn't the one who didn't get along with Ferrell. Instead, Caan claimed that it was Elf's director, Jon Favreau, that Ferrell didn't like.
Amazingly enough, Caan even claimed that Ferrell was interested in making a sequel to Elf at one point but decided to give up on that idea only because of Favreau.
"Will [Ferrell] wanted to do it, he didn’t want the director [Favreau], and he had it in his contract. It was one of those things."
How Much Money Did James Caan Make From Elf?
Before Elf was produced, most people had no idea that movie was even in the works. As a result, it wasn't like Forbes or Entertainment Weekly were obsessively reporting about everything that went on during the making of Elf.
When the media mostly ignores the production of a movie at the time, it quickly becomes almost impossible to know certain things. Most notably, the chances of learning how much an actor is paid for a role typically becomes impossible unless it was reported contemporaneously.
Since there weren't any reports about how much James Caan was paid to star in Elf at that time, nothing is known about his initial pay package. Despite that, there is no doubt that Caan made a lot of money as a result of starring in Elf.
When Caan and his ex-wife Linda decided to get divorced, they wound up having a highly antagonistic legal battle. During that process, some facts about Caan's financial picture came to light.
For the purposes of this article, one fact that was revealed during Caan's divorce battle is especially fascinating. According to court documents from his court battle with his ex-wife, Caan made $140,000 in residuals from Elf in the year 2015.
Most actors who still get residuals from movies released a decade earlier will get very small amounts. Despite that, Caan pulled in that impressive sum from Elf residuals 12 years after Elf was released.
With that in mind, it seems all but certain that Caan continued to make tens of thousands of dollars in Elf residuals annually up until his passing and now his estate is cashing in. On top of that, there is a strong possibility that Caan brought in more than $140,000 from Elf some years.
Considering how much money in residuals Caan must have made from Elf over the years and his initial salary for the film, James must have been laughing all the way to the bank.
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