Dior signed Johnny Depp to the biggest men’s fragrance deal ever. Sources estimate the three-year pact will cost upwards of $20 million, dwarfing Robert Pattinson’s $12 million contract to promote Dior Homme and Brad Pitt’s $7 million deal to promote Chanel No. 5. A source close to the fragrance industry told Variety that most A-listers with fragrance deals earn around $2 million to $4 million yearly, like Chris Pine with Armani, who made $4 million in three years with the company.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star has served as the face of Dior Sauvage since 2015. After a U.K. court ruled against Depp’s libel suit against The Sun over its description of him as a “wife beater” with regards to Amber Heard in 2020, the company faced pressure to drop him.
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In the aftermath of his victory over Heard last year in last year’s defamation trial, Depp’s image and marketability transformed. Sales of Dior Sauvage skyrocketed with Bernard Arnault, CEO of Dior’s parent company LVMH, attributing the “image of Johnny Depp” as one of the main reasons for the cologne’s “remarkable success.”
According to TMZ, Dior’s new deal with Depp was forged after famous fashion photographer Greg Williams and executives from the French luxury fashion house attended one of Depp’s and Jeff Beck’s Paris concerts. The outlet reported that a photo shoot between Depp and Williams was done before and after the Paris show, and the content will be used in JD’s new Dior ads.
The Dior deal coincides with Depp’s appearance at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, where he will appear in Mawenn’s historical drama Jeanne du Barry, in which he plays King Louis XV. A Dior dinner is planned for May 17th, after which he is expected to head to London the following day to perform at a Jeff Beck tribute with Eric Clapton and Rod Stewart. Variety notes that it seems likely that the lucrative Dior contract, which Depp’s representatives at Range Media negotiated, will pave the way for the actor to once again be offered movie roles by the major studios, who had been reluctant to work with him before the Virginia verdict. As it turns out, the lost wages were significant given that Depp’s team had reached a deal involving 22.5 million dollars in payment for “Pirates 6” in 2017, a figure revealed during the Virginia trial.
