Romey Rome
All Star
Great thread. I've always wondered how much some of these ppl make.
How much do actors get off syndication deals?
- Thread starter Wise
- Start date
I wish we could get specific stats.
I had a teach back in HS.. that came out in big trouble little China for 1 min.. who got a monthly check for 250 back I around the 2000s... for how often the movie would come out on tv
I had a teach back in HS.. that came out in big trouble little China for 1 min.. who got a monthly check for 250 back I around the 2000s... for how often the movie would come out on tv
RIP Jay ThomasRaymond is good because he owns the show. Not sure if Raymond took care of the cast though. "Friends" was in the same boat as the Seinfeld cast. None of them owned the show but they made up for it with their contracts during the last few years of the show. I believe they were getting around a million an episode at the end of "Friends". I doubt any of those actors from the various L&O's had anything in their contracts that would allow them to get residuals off of reruns. They would just get replaced if they caused any trouble since L&O was a juggernaut. How many DA's and Cops were replaced on L&O? That's why Ice-T never leaving. He's making good money right now just being on the show. Jay Thomas has a radio show on SiriusXM that i listen to and he discusses this stuff all the time. Jay was on Cheers, Mork & Mindy, Murphy Brown, Mr. Holland's Opus and still does acting work. He said once while working on the that Santa Clause movie with Tim Allen who starred and owns that "Home Improvement" tv show received a syndication check for $90 MILLION dollars
#edit# based on the link in post #11 below, the Friends cast got 2% of the syndication money, so they are good. Each of them of getting $20 mil a year from syndication
it varies.
Like someone else said, that chick Flo from the insurance commercials is balling. I heard comedian Godfrey on Vlad TV say that lady is making a killing.
But I heard an interview with Marlon Wayans where he said some of his tv residual checks are like .70 & .80 cents. I've alsi heard this from a couple of other actors.
Like someone else said, that chick Flo from the insurance commercials is balling. I heard comedian Godfrey on Vlad TV say that lady is making a killing.
But I heard an interview with Marlon Wayans where he said some of his tv residual checks are like .70 & .80 cents. I've alsi heard this from a couple of other actors.
Here's a good example of how residuals work. "Friends" was the biggest TV show (after Seinfeld) during the 90s:
How do actors make money off residuals?
The “Friends” cast was making $1 million an episode for the last couple of seasons. But Craig Beatty, the Vice President of Entertainment Partners, says there’s a ceiling. During “Friends” that was around $2,500 an episode. So let’s use that as our jumping off point to calculate an example:
Let’s take “The One Where Eddie Moves In," otherwise known as the ultimate "Smelly Cat" episode:
If, back in 1996, it repeated once during the summer and once the following year on NBC, then Lisa Kudrow would have theoretically gotten:
$2,500 x 2 = $5,000
When a show is syndicated to basic cable and local television stations (called "free television" in the biz), a sliding scale kicks in. Kudrow would have received 40 percent for the first re-run (40 percent of $2,500 = $1,000), 30 percent for the second re-run ($750) and then 25 percent for the next three re-runs. 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. So if “The One Where Eddie Moves In” re-aired five times in syndication, the math would work like this:
40% of $2,500 = $1,000
+
30% of $2,500 = $750
25% of $2,500 = $625 x 3 = $1,875
Kudrow would also be compensated for foreign rights, but those work a little differently. Back in the '90s, she would’ve gotten one flat payment of 35 percent, no matter how many channels it showed on outside North America. So:
35% of $2,500 = $875
And if we add all that up:
$5,000 + $875 + $1,000 + $750 + $1,875 = $9,500
Using "Friends" is the extreme example though. Those black shows on Fox/UPN/WB were not in the same universe in terms of ratings, salaries, real network tv, etc. I bolded the "after the 13 time the episode airs" part since all these shows have aired way more than 13 times by now so the regular cast each gets 5% of that one episode of work. I doubt those black actors were making anywhere close to $2500 a episode, which is why most say they get checks that the postage cost more than the amount of the check.
How do actors make money off residuals?
The “Friends” cast was making $1 million an episode for the last couple of seasons. But Craig Beatty, the Vice President of Entertainment Partners, says there’s a ceiling. During “Friends” that was around $2,500 an episode. So let’s use that as our jumping off point to calculate an example:
Let’s take “The One Where Eddie Moves In," otherwise known as the ultimate "Smelly Cat" episode:
If, back in 1996, it repeated once during the summer and once the following year on NBC, then Lisa Kudrow would have theoretically gotten:
$2,500 x 2 = $5,000
When a show is syndicated to basic cable and local television stations (called "free television" in the biz), a sliding scale kicks in. Kudrow would have received 40 percent for the first re-run (40 percent of $2,500 = $1,000), 30 percent for the second re-run ($750) and then 25 percent for the next three re-runs. 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. So if “The One Where Eddie Moves In” re-aired five times in syndication, the math would work like this:
40% of $2,500 = $1,000
+
30% of $2,500 = $750
25% of $2,500 = $625 x 3 = $1,875
Kudrow would also be compensated for foreign rights, but those work a little differently. Back in the '90s, she would’ve gotten one flat payment of 35 percent, no matter how many channels it showed on outside North America. So:
35% of $2,500 = $875
And if we add all that up:
$5,000 + $875 + $1,000 + $750 + $1,875 = $9,500
Using "Friends" is the extreme example though. Those black shows on Fox/UPN/WB were not in the same universe in terms of ratings, salaries, real network tv, etc. I bolded the "after the 13 time the episode airs" part since all these shows have aired way more than 13 times by now so the regular cast each gets 5% of that one episode of work. I doubt those black actors were making anywhere close to $2500 a episode, which is why most say they get checks that the postage cost more than the amount of the check.
Last edited:
filial_piety
Banned
In this day ad age...I think stars of these shows have alot more pull for residuals than they didi n the past.
I remember Dawn Wells (Mary Ann from Giligans Island) was on the radio doing an interview and she was asked if she were still making money from the show after all these years..and she said she hadn't seen a dime of it since she left the show, despite the syndication and decades of popularity.
I remember Dawn Wells (Mary Ann from Giligans Island) was on the radio doing an interview and she was asked if she were still making money from the show after all these years..and she said she hadn't seen a dime of it since she left the show, despite the syndication and decades of popularity.