War of the Worlds 2025: The zero-star Amazon Prime Video flop that paid Ice Cube, Eva Longoria & Clark Gregg millions

Prime Video’s 2025 reboot of War of the Worlds—a “screen life” take on H.G. Wells’ sci-fi classic—landed with a thud, debuting at 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite its modern twist of telling the alien invasion story entirely through interconnected monitors, critics slammed the film as unengaging and overloaded with Amazon product placements.

Still, the failure didn’t stop its all-star cast from taking home hefty paychecks.

How Much Amazon Paid Its War of the Worlds Cast

According to a report of Fandomwire, Ice Cube may have earned between $3–5 million for the role of DHS officer Will Radford, who shifted from watching screens to battling extraterrestrials. The rap icon–turned–actor was famous for Boyz n the Hood (1991), Friday (1995), and 21 Jump Street (2012).

Eva Longoria played NASA astrophysicist Dr. Sandra Salas, decoding alien signals. Best known for Desperate Housewives (2004–2012) and The Sentinel (2006), she reportedly pocketed an estimated $1–3 million.

Clark Gregg, Marvel’s beloved Agent Phil Coulson, portrayed DHS director Donald Briggs, earning $0.5–1 million.

As per the report, other cast salaries included:

Andrea Savage (I’m Sorry, Step Brothers) – $0.2–0.5 million

Devon Bostick (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The 100) – $0.15–0.3 million

Iman Benson (BlackAF, The Midnight Club) – $0.1–0.2 million

Michael O’Neill (The West Wing, Dallas Buyers Club) – $0.2–0.5 million

War of the Worlds (2025) is now streaming in the U.S. on Prime Video.

What the reviewers are saying about War of the Worlds

The sci-fi reboot has crashed to a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a dubious distinction shared by only 45 films in the site’s history. War of the Worlds is one of just two films from 2025 to hit rock bottom—the other being Alarum.

Empire magazine slammed the project as “a risible attempt to modernise classic science fiction by tossing in WhatsApp and political intrigue. This thin, frantic, and soulless adaptation is misguided moviemaking cubed.”

The UK’s Daily Telegraph critic was equally scathing, calling it “silly, shoddy, and far too full of rapper-turned-leading man Ice Cube staring at a computer screen as though battling a moderately urgent digestive crisis.”

Variety’s review took aim at Cube’s performance: “It’s hard to tell what to make of Ice Cube in a role like this. He has two modes—resting scowl and nuclear overreaction—neither of which scream ‘the kind of man the government would entrust with top-level surveillance technology.’”