How much money do actors make in royalties

Being an actor can be a very lucrative line of work. Even better: They get free catered lunch and snacks from craft services on set all day. Okay, well even better than that : residuals. Synonymous with Hollywood trade lingo words like «profit participation,» «backend deals,» and «royalties,» residuals mean money that actors receive whenever a movie or TV show they made gets aired on TV, sold to a streaming service like Netflix, or is re-released to movie theaters, or even shown on an airplane. That means they get paid again even though they didn’t do anything! Production companies use a complicated formula to determine how much actors get paid, and some get paid more than .

‘Friends’ Royalties

Depending on syndication deals, stars can expect to rake in millions as the years go by thanks to residuals from reruns alone! From the entire cast of Friends to the richest Emmy Award-winning actors, these talents prove that the real money lies in the small screen, and not just the big screen. Read on to discover why these stars always have smiling accountants. Ray Romano might be known to younger voices for his work in the Ice Age franchise, but he gained widespread recognition as the star of the CBS series Everybody Loves Raymond. These days, Romano is one of the wealthiest Emmy award-winning actors of all time, thanks largely to his continued royalty checks. Friends is one of the most popular shows the world has ever seen. The series made Hollywood A-listers out of its cast, but Jennifer Aniston has arguably had the most successful career since. Kelsey Grammer played the formidably serious yet hysterical Frasier Crane for over 20 years, originating on Cheers. When the spin-off show debuted, it continued the storyline of the character and his family in his home city of Seattle, gaining new fans by the day. The series continued to air for 11 seasons before gracefully bowing out in Seinfeld captivated audiences with its quick witted script and loveable characters in the 90s and beyond. When the series ended in , it was a sad day for everyone involved, but all these years later and co-creators Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David continue to make a mint from the series. At the helm of it all was David Hasselhoff as the often-shirtless Mitch. The actor also made a cameo appearance in the movie based on the franchise. Cheers was — and continues to be — one of the biggest shows ever to grace our screens. Danson has had several roles since that have bumped up his bank balance, including parts in Curb Your Enthusiasm , Bored to Death , and The Good Place. The Golden Girls was way ahead of its time in many ways. The witty script coupled with the supreme acting talent makes it relevant all these years later. Betty White is an institution, at almost years old.

Latest Episodes

Many of the offers appearing on this site are from advertisers from which this website receives compensation for being listed here. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. These offers do not represent all deposit accounts available. When shows are syndicated, redistributed, released on DVD, purchased by a streaming service or otherwise used beyond what the actors were originally paid for, those actors get residual checks called royalties. So, do all actors get paid for reruns? For principal performers, royalties can lead to long-term payoffs that trump the original salary. Ray Romano — one of the richest Emmy Award winners of all time — took the No. We have not been paid for reruns of the show for many, many years. We are not making money off of it at all. You get nothing. And, the new generation reportedly cleans up a little more than the Olsen twins did — though, despite their low original pay, the twins have gone on to become millionaires many times over. The Conners returned to living rooms in , but the show was canceled by ABC two months after it premiered when its star, Roseanne Barr, posted a racist tweet. Once upon a time, going where everyone knew your name was synonymous with getting paid well. The stars of the show are much better off with their salaries and residuals than if they were paid for the roles they represented on TV. As the show prepares to wrap up its final season, the cast has been snagging seriously large paychecks for their time on set. Although the majority lived above average — residing in Manhattan and holding careers like attorney, architect and TV news personality — the top earner by far was Barney Stinson, the lothario and charmer from the group. This smash TV series has tugged at the heartstrings of many, and the cast is getting compensation to match. Hopefully, they can enjoy residuals for many years to come — as long as they remember to unplug their Crock-Pots. Macy — aka her TV dad, Frank Gallagher. The King of the North is pretty rich in real life, too. The show now has 16 seasons to syndicate from — potentially making Harmon and his co-stars wealthy from reruns alone. Epatha Merkerson, who played Lt. Anita Van Vuren on the show from to , told Huffington Post in that sometimes she received royalty checks that were worth less than the postage used to send them. Editorial Note: This content is not provided by American Express. Open a New Bank Account.

Jennifer Aniston

Thanks to public standard union contracts, we know what the base salary is for Broadway performers, stage managers, and musicians. These minimum rates are only for professionals on Broadway and are calculated by the week since, unlike other vocations who report annual salaries, artists will not necessarily be employed by their Broadway show for a full year. These figures are valid as of October 2,and are scheduled to remain through September 29,after which most of these rates will increase slightly.

Musician pay rates comes from Local Their rates are valid as of March and are scheduled to remain through March 3, But that figure can increase depending on the particular demands of any given track.

Understudying roles also comes with additional pay. There are also some other situations in which musicians may be required to assume additional responsibilities or make an additional time commitment, which can result in an increase in the base pay. Logan Culwell-Block is a musical theatre historian, Playbill’s manager of research, and curator of Playbill Vault.

Blocking belongs on the stage, not on websites. Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors. Please consider supporting us by whitelisting playbill. Thank you! By Logan Culwell-Block. A Chorus Line.

Recommended Reading:. In honor of the Summer Games in Rio, Playbill crowned champions of theatrical feats. Who do you think deserves the gold?

Tickets may be tough to come by, but getting one is not quite as impossible as it. These talents have played incredible roles, but there are a few parts they have yet to try. Those Dancing Feet! What Broadway dance performances have stayed in your head days — or even years — after you first watch them?

Here’s our collection of the most iconic dances performed on the Great White Way. The Top 10 Songs by Stephen Sondheim. We toiled to narrow down this list of the Top 10 Songs by Stephen Sondheim. The creatives of The Phantom of the Opera share secrets and cool Phantom -facts from the hit Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, in honor of its 30th anniversary.

Do you know all of these? Follow Playbill Now. Want Discount Tickets? All Rights Reserved. Powered by.

MK Talks Acting: How Actors Get Paid!

‘Seinfeld’ Royalties

When you become a bigger part of the show, however, that changes. The next step up from an how much money do actors make in royalties is a day player. How much they get is based on what they are paid in the first place. This Gunther:. But here, I thought it would be interesting to calculate how much one of the main cast members gets paid:. If, back init repeated once during the summer and once the following year on NBC, then Lisa Kudrow would have theoretically gotten:. After that, it goes down incrementally until the 13th time it airs. From then on, an actor gets 5 percent for each episode every time it airs, forever. Kudrow would also be compensated for foreign rights, but those work a little differently. Regardless, residuals are a steady stream of income in a line of work where nothing else is all that steady. The text has been corrected. But for Marketplace to continue to grow, we need additional investment from those who care most about what we do: superfans like you.