Orlando Bloom reveals very small paycheque he received for Lord of The Rings trilogy which made billions

I don't need to tell anyone that Lord of the Rings is a successful franchise - one that has spawned spin-offs, TV shows and a whole lot of memes.

So it's no surprise that LOTR has raked in a whole lot of money, but you might be shocked to learn that one of its stars only took home a very, very small sliver of that total.

New Line Cinema

Orlando Bloom took on the role of Legolas in the film series; an elf who forms one of the nine members of the Fellowship tasked with destroying the One Ring.

Bloom made his first appearance in the role in 2001's The Fellowship of the Ring, before returning for the two sequels, The Two Towers and The Return of the King.

In the 20 years since the trilogy was released, the three films have continued to pull in cash and have each earned a worldwide gross way into the millions - and even crossing the billions threshold.

According to Box Office Mojo, Fellowship of the Ring has earned $880,839,846 (£7.05m), while the Two Towers has pulled in $936,689,735 (£749m) and the Return of the King takes the top spot with a staggering worldwide gross of $1,140,682,011 (£8.8m)

In total, that's more than $2.9 billion (£2.3b) for the three films.

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So how much did Bloom earn? Well, his paycheque didn't even get close to the millions.

In an interview with Howard Stern, Bloom admitted he was signed on to the film when he was a 'nobody', so he got basically 'nothing' for his involvement.

"I got nothing," he told the host, before revealing his paycheque was '$175,000' (£140,000).

And that wasn't just for one film, either - it was for all three.

Legolas was one of Bloom's first major acting roles and helped kick-start his career in Hollywood, which, it's safe to say, has gone on to be extremely successful.

New Line Cinema

So even though he didn't take home the big bucks for his involvement in Lord of the Rings, Bloom admitted that it was worth it - and he'd do it all over again.

"Listen, greatest gift of my life," Bloom said. "You'd do it again for half the money."

Bloom's Lord of the Rings career didn't end with the initial trilogy, either, as he later went on to appear in 2013's spin-off The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and and The Battle of the Five Armies in 2014.

On top of that, of course, he also secured a huge role in the long-running Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, which I'm sure will have done a good job in helping to pack out Bloom's bank account.