The $50 million gap between these two Marvel titans comes down to one brutal detail: timing and leverage. Evans signed his Captain America deal in 2010 when he was desperate to prove he wasn't just a pretty face after middling rom-coms, so Marvel got him locked in for $300K upfront with backend participation that, while generous at $15M per Avengers film, was still negotiated from a position of weakness. Hemsworth, by contrast, came to Thor in 2011 with less Hollywood baggage but more global appeal—he was already an international action star and could walk away. His deal reportedly included more aggressive profit participation and merchandise rights that compounded with each film, letting him capture more of the $27+ billion the MCU has generated.