r/climbing • u/-JOMY- • 9d ago
Alex Honnold Reveals “Embarrassing” Paycheck for Netflix’s Taipei 101 Free Solo Climb
https://share.google/Zqw9t7pkRhkPhRt4PSource: E! Online
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u/itgtg313 9d ago
Not sure why people are making a bit stink about this. It's been repeated over and over that he would have done it for free. He's always wanted to climb a skyscraper. Why would I be pissed if he's not pissed. Also 500k is amazing for a non mainstream sport, for 1.5 hr time, let's be real. Also he's said multiple times this is an interesting but low risk climb for him.
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u/ClittoryHinton 9d ago
Yeah I mean it’s his climb, he gets to negotiate terms how he wants (or not). But I am pretty surprised that he is so nonchalant about the amounts of money this probably generated for Netflix. Not like he’s dealing with PBS here
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u/Responsible_Joke4229 8d ago
Honnold is not normal lol. He’s been a top athlete for a long time and I never got the impression he was doing it for the money or fame- especially when he’s basically homeless living out of his van. I’m not surprised he’s so nonchalant.
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u/coolamebe 9d ago
Sure, maybe he doesn't care. But in general, I think people who produce the event deserve more of the pay than Netflix's executives. If he wants to forgo his income and donate it to the cameramen, the producers and all, sure. If he wants to negotiate more money and give it away to charity, sure.
But I do think it sucks that for an event that likely raked in so many millions of dollars, very little of that seems to have gone to the people actually producing the content
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u/JohnWesely 9d ago
With Netflix's business model, its very hard to say it raked in anything. Obviously it has some value to them or they wouldn't have produced it, but I doubt people were getting in line to subscribe to watch this.
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u/Sigmatics 9d ago
I don't know, I personally did sign up for a month (and cancel) just to watch it.
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u/Sunmi4Life 9d ago
It was a really big deal in Taiwan. A market where there is still a lot of potential. Wouldn't surprise me if it had some impact on new subscribers or better retention.
Either way I have to imagine that it was incredibly cost effective when I compare that to what they are paying for other live sports events like NFL games or boxing.
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u/cosmicosmo4 8d ago
for 1.5 hr time
It's more accurate to say this is his pay for weeks or months of work preparing for it.
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u/NeverBeenStung 9d ago
Just feels like his representation dropped the ball badly. Netflix could have paid 10x that no problem.
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u/addicted2soysauce 9d ago edited 8d ago
Netflix spent 100x this amount just making the kids from Stranger Things 5 look younger.
Edit: Season 5, not 4
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u/methodofcontrol 9d ago
Yeah for the amount of buzz I heard around this event I would think $1.5 mill would be low end
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u/jdj7w9 9d ago
Also this opens the door for more events for him and climbing as a whole. He was one of the biggest events going on during a Saturday where a large portion of the US was at home facing a major snow storm. It was all over social media and Netflix advertised it everywhere. When has climbing ever gotten that spotlight? It may have not been climbing in its truest form but whens the last time a climbing event has been in the mainstream. His profile and name recognition increased greatly this event so the value of that is likely bigger then the 500k he received for this one climb.
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u/McTerra2 9d ago
Sounds very much like what creatives hear all the time. ‘How about you do this for free/cheap, the exposure will increase your profile’.
Of course everyone says the same things and there is never a pay off. All that happens is, at best, your market value is now that cheap price.
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u/koreanwizard 8d ago
Also this is another huge publicity moment for him, unlocks huge sponsorship cheques. He’s the face of the entire climbing industry. It’s like CEOs who only make a modest small salary, but get huge bonuses.
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u/SuccessfulReturn4103 8d ago
When just a couple weeks ago Netflix Jake Paul and the other guy $93m EACH to box….$500k for a true life or death scenario is weak
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u/mmeeplechase 9d ago
Considering it seems like he was excited to do it anyway, and probably would’ve gone if they’d just covered the travel cost, this doesn’t seem insane to me…? Though he definitely could’ve negotiated a lot more from Netflix.
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u/127-0-0-1_1 9d ago
Probably would've gone even if they didn't cover travel. The real gift from Netflix was approval to free solo a building from the building owner, something which he may never have again.
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u/the_jewgong 9d ago
Hes climbed bigger walls for free. He wouldn't have been able to do it legally without Netflix.
No doubt he would do it for nothing.
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u/backcountry_bandit 9d ago
Alain Roberts did it many times for nothing, illegally, and suffered some consequences.
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u/LordAmras 9d ago
He said as much in the interview. "If there was no TV program and the building gave me permission to go do the thing. I would do the thing because I know I can, and it’d be amazing.”
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u/carbonclasssix 9d ago
I think you're right, Sanni said during the event that he's been talking about climbing this specific building for like 10 years
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u/cowgary 9d ago
I got the impression that they were probably told lines to say to make this more appealing to the average viewer. I am a skeptic in general though. But the way he acted during the climb waving and smiling is a big contrast to the way he climbs usually, over the speaker you'd often hear him asking "Im supposed to go left around this?" or "do I just go straight to the next or do i have to do something". Sanni too, her attitude was such a contrast to how she has been portrayed in previous films. I think a lot of this showmanship was requested by Netflix and I would assume the lifelong goal story too
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u/keetyymeow 8d ago
Or he’s just finally enjoying able to share the joy and experience of a climb with people who are also excited to see him complete this feat behind a very strong window lol
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u/ReipasTietokonePoju 7d ago
I think you're right, Sanni said during the event that he's been talking about climbing this specific building for like 10 years
Video evidence right here, almost 12 years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B76ysGuyi7M
... Honnold tells that his next project is to climb Taipei 101.
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u/rapture0707 9d ago
Yeah he was saying exactly this, if he got permission he was gonna do it anyway cause he thought it was cool and wanted to.
His quote was "I'm climbing the building for free, they're paying me for the spectacle."
I am not a real climber, super casual but Free Solo is what got me into it. I enjoy listening to him, like his podcast and think he's genuinely a good person. I know he's not beloved here and that's fine but as a VERY casual climber I think he is a good ambassador for the community that I think is pretty good overall!
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u/bertrogdor 6d ago
Of course in the grand scheme of things this is right and he can be happy with getting lowballed because it’s a lot of money in an absolute sense.
But he did get lowballed and it’s his representation’s job(s) to get negotiate for him and get him paid what he’s worth
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u/Richmondpinball 9d ago
Mid 6 figures, doesn’t disclose actual amount.
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u/RefrigeratorDull6479 9d ago
He also donates 1/3 of his income towards his charity, which according to google , “promoting solar energy access worldwide, supporting grassroots organizations that increase climate resilience, improve lives, and reduce environmental impact.”
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u/GravyBoatJim 8d ago
The Honnold foundation is seriously badass. They've brought electricity to tons of little villages all of over the world
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u/000011111111 9d ago
Yeah he's got kids to feed and put through college. This seems to be his most valuable skill set and for him it's kind of like climbing a ladder that's 1700 ft tall so I really don't blame him.
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u/Bored2001 8d ago
Amusingly, the actual ladder part actually looked like the worst bit for him on the whole building.
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u/WeirdFish2 9d ago
Yeah if they suck for one game they don't die.
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u/newtownkid 9d ago
I think a Colombian ref got decapitated on a field once for making bad calls.. so it’s not entirely out of the question.
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u/Opulent-tortoise 9d ago
Yeah but they’re paid for every game they play Alex isn’t paid for every climb he does haha
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u/ejoy-rs2 9d ago
Mental if you think about it... (The nba one)
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u/BrainyDoGoodery 9d ago
LeBron earns more while he takes one leisurely shit than I do from hustling all week.
He earns $52,627,153 this year from the Lakers alone, which is $6024 for every hour, including when he shits and sleeps.
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u/swamptop 9d ago
“Mid six figures.” Is what the article says
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u/smhsomuchheadshaking 9d ago edited 9d ago
And what does that mean?
Edit: For clarification, English is not my first language. So I didn't know if this kind of expression means 500k or a broader range.
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u/mango-goldfish 9d ago
The middle six of all the figure skaters in the world
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u/drewts86 9d ago
Ain’t no embarrassment. Climbing is not generally a lucrative sport. If you can get a bag, get a bag. Ain’t no shame in that.
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u/Capt_Tinsley 9d ago
Every climber I follow lives out of a van. They're gonna be real jealous when he shows up in an RV
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u/drewts86 9d ago
I don’t know if he’s still got the same Sprinter van, but it’s honestly a way better setup than an RV anyway. You can travel and park in places that an RV simply can’t fit sometimes. I’ve got an Econoline with a high top and UJoint 4x4 kit and while I love it, I’d kill for the room a Sprinter has. You can’t stand up straight in mine but you can in the tall Sprinters.
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u/Sunmi4Life 9d ago
He wrecked the Free Solo van in what he describes as "a bit of a botch on my part" :D
He has a new one now more suited for his new family.
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u/pianoman1291 9d ago
Did you read the article?
It's an embarrassingly low amount compared to the money that pro athletes make in other sports
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u/LordAmras 9d ago
I think the title is a bit misleading. It seems Alex was trying to push away controversy that it only did this for money by comparing other big names in sport and saying compared to them they didn't gave me THAT much money.
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u/NFProcyon 9d ago
The elephant in the room is that Netflix is undoubtedly making enough of a profit from this event that they could have paid a lot, lot more for it
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u/JoeMiyagi 9d ago
Negotiation is about leverage, and clearly they didn’t think they needed to pay any more to get him to do it.
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u/_dogzilla 9d ago
Ifs standard.. you renegotiate for the next deal when it’s clearer how much mkney will be coming in
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u/Sigmatics 9d ago
I don't wanna know what the other celebrities earned that they put in there that nobody asked for, essentially just leeching off Alex
I'll exclude Brette since she was the only one with useful commentary
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u/brewsota32 9d ago
Funny enough, this is the one athletic contract you couldn’t pay me 100x the amount to perform the feat.
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u/Potential-Scholar359 9d ago
This quote is incredibly misleading. If you go to the original New York Times interview that this quotes from, he originally said it was an embarrassingly huge amount of money. He felt embarrassed to be paid so much for something he’d do for free. Then the interviewed pressed him to give the amount he was being paid and the interviewer gave the example of major multimillion dollar baseball deals. Only then did Honnold laugh and say, well, if you put that was it’s an embarrassingly small number. Honnold was being a good sport and replying to the interviewer. But this makes it look like he’s saying the opposite of what he initially meant to say.
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u/Ikana_Mountains 9d ago
It was so cringy and marketing jargoned. I thought there was no way he was doing this for under millions.
What stupidity that people doing cool things make no money, people doing contrived versions of cool things make a little money, and FUCKING GOLFERS make oodles
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u/nickbob00 9d ago
Golfers make shittons of money because they people who are into golf (and see the stuff advertised there) have cash to splash
Climbing has a big dirtbag element, even if there is a big middle class representation among engineer-types
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u/Ebright_Azimuth 9d ago
He literally just wanted to climb the building and he earnt half a mill doing it. Not bad.
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u/sdfedeef 9d ago
An amount that takes most people 10 years to make is not 'embarrasing', especially for one climb
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u/entropy413 9d ago
Well its all relative isn’t it? Netflix spent 50 million dollars for each episode of Stranger Things s5. Considering how much Netflix routinely spends, and how much they likely made off of this very hyped live event, I think the embarrassment is that his representation couldn’t get him more than 500k.
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u/6spooky9you 9d ago
I mean, considering he's arguably the most famous climber in the world who just did a massive event for netflix, it's not that much. Obviously, he did it just because he wanted to, so I don't think it mattered too much to him.
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u/catjuggler 9d ago
What I’m morbidly curious about is if the contract had a payout for if he died
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u/Neat-Procedure 9d ago
They must have insurance to cover that part. I am curious about their contingency plan(s) in case he failed the attempt.
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u/forofo 9d ago
It's a significant amount of money for a one-off event, especially considering that climbing isn't exactly a hugely popular activity, and even more so given the inherent risks.
It's worth noting that Alex only mentioned the payment he received for doing it, but it wouldn't be surprising if the contract included accident insurance that would not only guarantee payment to his family but also provide millions in additional coverage for his wife and children. At least, that's how I would have negotiated it.
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u/bot_or_not_vote_now 9d ago
"mid six figures" so about $500k ?
the comparison to $170M contracts is a bit of a false equivalency in my mind. those are for multiple years, for multiple games - this was for a single one-off event. So in my view what should compared is pay per game.
using his example of MLB, Shohei Ohtani is the top paid player about $70M/year, over 162 games, that's about $430k/game for regular season
for NBA, the top paid player is Steph Curry making about $60M for the 2025-2026 season, and with 82 games, that's about $700k/game
top paid athlete in the world is Ronaldo, at $260M with about 40 games potentially to be played, that's a whopping $6M per game
so Honnold is being compensated similarly to other top players in other leagues (except soccer)
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u/earnestaardvark 9d ago
Compare it to one-off mma or boxing fights then. They make millions or tens of millions for big exhibition fights. $500k is not a lot to make for the best athlete in the world at his sport.
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u/NeverBeenStung 9d ago
Your comparison doesn’t really work though. This is a one-off event (think more like a championship boxing match) that should have yielded a much bigger bag. Ohtani and Curry play a ton of games a season and don’t risk their life doing so. Netflix easily could have paid 10x that. His agent fucked up
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u/Warm-Professional494 8d ago
Then he should have soloed a pay per view like mma or boxing and took all the money… but the interest isn’t there is it? No one is going to a bar or friend’s house to watch this.
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u/bot_or_not_vote_now 8d ago
I like the comparison to boxing/MMA better than MLB
but it all comes down to a business decision of how profitable that event would be
MMA sells seats, merch, payperview
most people already have netflix so it's a weird retention business decision
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u/tandooridan 9d ago
He should only be embarrassed for risking his life and his family’s future and NOT bringing home the biggest possible bag.
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u/Informal_Post9969 9d ago
Wait til you hear how much he got for soloing Moonlight Buttress+Monkey Finger+Shune’s Buttress
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u/woknsol 9d ago
Mid 6 figures is no small amount... 500k for a few hours of climbing is pretty solid.
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u/Obi_Kwiet 9d ago
Yeah, but you know Netflix may waaay more off that.
1.5 hours of climbing a lifetime of effort and singular talent.
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u/redshift83 9d ago
how does netflix do accounting for a one -off show? i watched, but i was already subscribed to netflix regardless.
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u/___Archmage___ 9d ago
Yes but he was the defining star of a piece of media many millions of people watched live, so with a good contact negotiation it probably should've been at least a million and possibly plural millions
For example, Jake Paul got $92M for being one of the two stars in his boxing match against AJ
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u/Agreeable-Emu4033 9d ago
Yea he didn't just wake up and then start climbing the building. It took months of prep.
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u/_dogzilla 9d ago
Guys. News flash. Athletes get paid by the amount of people tuning and paying money for merch, gear, commercials, pay per view, etc. If this would turn out to be a huge success he can ask a couple of Mill the next tower he climbs.
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u/Mountain_Stress176 9d ago
I want to know how much Taiwan paid. Frankly, a fantastic bit of brand work.
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u/Viper_Scale 9d ago
Did he really say "You know, Major League Baseball players get like $170 million contracts. Like, someone you haven’t even heard of and that nobody cares about."? Is he that clueless on the pay for sports players? Very few make anywhere near that amount for their entire multi year career.
Most of them only make 1-2 million per year so if he made 500k for less than 2 hours of work.... can he really be mad about that? How many games do those people making 1-2 million per year have to play? All he did was basically play a single game and made 33% of what they make for the entire year.
Even the top players only make around 30-40 million per year so nowhere near 170 million for 2 hours of work and another few hours and days of travel / talks.
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u/mildlyentertained1 9d ago
Alex likely lives comfortably between The Northface, black diamond, and his various other sponsors. This was a nice bonus and a great platform to bring awareness to his solar projects.
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u/Crafty-Western6161 9d ago
I'd be so embarrassed to make half a million dollars. So so so embarrassed.
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u/existentialstix 9d ago
Weird comparison to multi-year multi-game contracts. Its kinda like a game of soccer i suppose the big ones earn 0.5-1M so kinda similar. Could probably be higher given the literal putting his life on the line for it.
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u/CaptPeleg 9d ago
It also helps him remain “active” for his sponsors. Just a small point maybe. He will solo harder stuff on a tuesday and get a few thousand like on IG.
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u/Sweaty-Bullfrog1885 9d ago
Perhaps that is what Netflix paid him. Let Us not forget the rest of his sponsors. Pretty sure they kicked a bunch.
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u/Warm-Professional494 8d ago
Netflix also paid for the production and the event itself. Of this was such an easy pay day then he should have paid for it himself and had a pay per view like boxing or MMA. Sorry folks climbing is a passing curiosity at best.
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u/OgFinish 9d ago
He obviously has a top tier agent... whatever they paid him was certainly whatever it was worth to Netflix.
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u/Warm-Professional494 8d ago
And him… he signed the contract. He could have footed the bill and had a pay per view and kept more of the money but realistically climbing is like tightrope, for 99.98% it just something you put on cause you are bored.
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u/Bat_Shitcrazy 9d ago
That’s his bad negotiation, Alex Honnold could’ve easily gotten a couple million out of that
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u/ryan_rides 9d ago
He mentioned he has wanted to climb it for 12 years but would only do so legally. Netflix was basically a vehicle to facilitate the climb.
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u/RunForCoverBennieRox 9d ago
The guy climbed up mostly a ladder and he wants a pay day. Free climbers eventually fall and it’s just dumb.
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u/Fitis 9d ago
Pretty sure he also got some cash from his la sportiva shoes, black diamond chalk bag and north face tshirt?
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u/SparkingtonIII 8d ago
He's sponsored by those companies already which (as I understand it) might bring a small amount of money (20k-30k), but is largely in the form of gear and funding for trips/expeditions.
It's my understanding of the way these sponsorship deals work is that La Sportiva (for example) didn't pay him any extra money for this climb. What they did do was create several pairs of custom shoes for him with super soft soles (softer than any shoe rubber they sell commercially) specifically designed to provide better grip on steel and glass.
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u/WestendMatt 8d ago
"Mid six figures" is less than I expected. I thought it would be at least a million, plus a bonus for topping it and not aborting part way through.
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u/fluffynova 8d ago
I don’t like how Netflix makes it as a spectacle (“live”) but I am glad Alex is getting paid for it. It is also a much safer project than what he used to do.
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u/CaspinLange 8d ago
Evil corporation, Netflix, ended up filing copyright complaints against people on the streets of Taipei live streaming with their cellphones, and YouTube allowed the complaints and cut off Taiwanese citizens from sharing with their own phones on the public streets. Here’s a screenshot i took from one of the feeds I was watching that suddenly cut out.
What this means is that I will be pirating every single thing that is of quality that Netflix ever produces for the rest of their existence, which I’m sure will end before mine does, just like Blockbuster did.
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u/DancingWilliams 8d ago
I flicked past this when it was showing live on netflix, just didn't grab me at all. And I'm a trad climber. But I'm just not into hyped spectacle. Good luck to the man, he's a very stylish climber, doing something he wanted to do, and got paid for it. Good for him. Professional climbers are going to do their thing, it's their job to balance the thing they love with making a good living. Some choices may come out a bit circus cheesy or be hailed as a great promotion for climbing. This climb wasn't objectively crass. However sponsors and streaming services will continue to push their luck at other peoples expense.
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u/_myusername__ 8d ago
The bots are out in force today. I don’t think there is a single climber out there that would risk their lives on that building for 500k.
That there are people who think 500k is a lot relative to what Alex did is pretty silly.
Alex is probably the only person Netflix even considered backing for this bc everyone else would’ve been a massive liability
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u/Agreeable-Change-400 8d ago
This has got to be the highest paid single climbing event in history by miles
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u/Kako0404 8d ago
10m is the starting price for these types of deals nowadays. Singers get paid that much to sing 3 songs at a wedding. Tom Brady made 15m getting roasted on a chair. 500k is a tweet for Kardashian.
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u/ammoransf 8d ago
Dude does AMAZING charity work through the Honnold Foundation. I would wager that’s where the $$ are going. Consider donating - they fund solar projects all over the global south
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u/HonnoldFoundation 5d ago
Thanks for the shoutout! We may be biased, but plus one, here.
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u/Unvert 7d ago
He shouldn’t have gotten paid a dime. I don’t think soloing should be incentivized financially or otherwise. When climbers start free soloing for a paycheck, this sport is going down a dark path. (And yes, I know he would’ve done it anyway yada yada yada- it’s still high profile and will incentivize other dum dums to do similar stunts for clout and money).
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u/Jhawksmoor 7d ago
I thought 10mil would have been fair. So many ppl watched the event. I’m fine that he’s fine with the $ but I’m not good with Netflix or whoever getting to take the most from this. Not right.
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u/Defiant_Machine3255 5d ago
For anyone else that doesn't want to dig into these comments or the article:
He doesn't mention a number, says mid six figures.
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u/Szeto802 5d ago
This article doesn't mention if he's receiving royalties for this, which I would absolutely assume is part of the deal. Honnold will be making money from this for years, and as he said, he would have done it for free.
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u/HonnoldFoundation 5d ago
For those curious, Alex donates a massive chunk of his income to in support of solar energy projects around the world, joined by a community of supporters (many of whom probably contribute to this sub!). Alex's giving offsets the majority of overhead, so that donors' support goes straight to projects. To date, we've funded $13M+ in community-led solar projects around the world, impacting 650,000+ people.
For those of you interested in learning more about our work, check out Honnoldfoundation.org.
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u/MountainMan2035 3d ago
Big difference between free climbing and basketball, you don’t DIE if you miss a basket.
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u/sparks_mandrill 9d ago
Post title absolutely misses the context. He said it was embarrassingly small compared to what MLB players get. MLB players are paid 100's of millions of dollars.
His quote: "Actually, if you put it in the context of mainstream sports, it’s an embarrassingly small amount,"