Led Zep 2 Million Dollar Paycheck 50 Years Later

Led Zeppelin had limited chart success with singles, but that doesn’t make their songs any less popular. “Immigrant Song,” the lead song on 1970’s Led Zeppelin III, is a prime example. Page’s simple, bouncing riff, Robert Plant’s war cry howl, and John Bonham’s insistent beat make it instantly recognizable. The song’s sound evokes mystery and menace while at the same time sounding celebratory. It’s a perfect song for a movie soundtrack, and it cost a pretty penny when director Taika Waititi included it in Thor: Ragnarok in 2017. It took more than asking nicely for Led Zeppelin to agree, though. Marvel Studios gave Led Zeppelin a $2 million paycheck for the rights, which was just over 1% of Ragnarok’s $180 million budget. It didn’t hurt that Waititi had a vision of how to use “Immigrant Song” in the movie. He included it in a teaser trailer he showed the band, which he said helped convince the picky Led Zeppelin to approve. “When we had the first cut of the trailer and showed [Led Zeppe