While big name movie stars once turned their noses up at television roles, gigantic paydays from streaming platforms such as Netflix and high production projects have drawn A-list names away from the big screen.
According to a new report by Variety, film stars including Harrison Ford, Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman have been paid over $1 million an episode for some of their latest projects - with Ellen DeGeneres earning a staggering $20-25 million for her recent Netflix stand-up special.
The report broke open the salaries of some of the highest paid actors in Hollywood, revealing which stars have snagged a tidy per episode sum.
With more networks and streaming services shelling out big bucks, Netflix paid $20-25 million for Ellen DeGeneres’ one off Netflix special Relatable last year - putting her at the top of the leader board for the 70 minute special.
Harrison Ford’s turn in The Staircase, an adaptation of a documentary about novelist Michael Peterson who murdered his wife, netted him the highest per episode salary on Variety’s list: earning him $1. 2 million per episode.
Notably, the genders were evenly split in the top ten highest earners on the list with both Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon earning $1.1 million per episode for Hulu’s Little Fires Everywhere.
Witherspoon and her The Morning Show stars are also having a lucrative year, as she and her co-star and co-producer Jennifer Aniston both reportedly made over $1 million per episode. (There are 10 episodes in the AppleTV+ show, meaning they earned over $10 million each - adding to Witherspoon’s already impressive haul for Little Fires Everywhere.)
Their co-star Steve Carrell was also the highest paid actor in a comedy series, as he will earn $1 million per episode for Netflix’s Space Force, which will be ten episodes long.
On top of that, his dramatic turn on The Morning Show also earned him $750k per episode.
Nicole Kidman, who has already thrown herself into the world of television with Big Little Lies alongside Witherspoon, will also reportedly earn $1 million per episode for Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers. Jeff Bridges is also a part of the $1 million club, earning his paycheck for his role on Hulu’s The Old Man.
Other stars were also paid a $1 million one off fee for a special appearance, with Iron Man’s Don Cheadle earning his million for Don’t Look Deeper while Will Forte and Kaitlin Olson earned theirs for Quibi’s Flipped.
On the whole, Variety’s list showed that actors in a dramatic series generally earned much more money as well as actors who came from a movie background, including Marvel star Chris Evans ($750k for Defending Jacobs on AppleTV+), Julia Roberts ($650k for Amazon’s Homecoming) and Jason Momoa ($600k for SEE on AppleTV+).
It also was pretty clear that streaming platforms were much more likely to spend big money to secure stars, with Netflix and AppleTV+ spending the most. (That said, CBS All Access did fork out an impressive $750k for Patrick Stewart’s return to the Star Trek universe with Picard.)
Here’s a list of the top ten TV salaries on Variety’s list below:
- $20-25 million - Ellen DeGeneres for her one off Netflix comedy special
- $1.2 million - Harrison Ford for The Staircase
- $1.1 million - Kerry Washington for Little Fires Everywhere
- $1.1 million - Reese Witherspoon for Little Fires Everywhere (plus $1m+ for The Morning Show)
- $1 million+ - Jennifer Aniston for The Morning Show
- $1 million - Nicole Kidman for Nine Perfect Strangers
- $1 million - Steve Carrell for Space Force (plus $750k for The Morning Show)
- $1 million - Jeff Bridges
- $750k - Patrick Stewart for Picard
- $750k - Chris Evans for Defending Jacobs
Other stars believed to make at least a million per episode include Norman Reedus of The Walking Dead, Elisabeth Moss on The Handmaid’s Tale and stars from The Big Bang Theory.
