Starring actor's pay ?

[David10086]

Posted: 5/7/22 at 11:41am

Since my original post was deleted because someone thought public court documents is 'too personal', let me ask it this way - 

 

Does $1668 per week seem like an average paycheck for a an actor starring in a Broadway revival ? For 8 performances in total, that comes out to $208 per performance.  

[thedrybandit]

Posted: 5/7/22 at 12:00pm

No, that number is low. I forget what the current Equity minimum for a Broadway salary is, but as of 2018 it was $2,034 a week. I believe now it's closer to $2,200. There are exceptions for non profits and the like, and actors are often able to negotiate higher depending on their credits, if they're a dance captain, etc.

[David10086]

Posted: 5/7/22 at 12:28pm

I thought it was rather low for a 'celebrity' starring actor. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/7/22 at 12:34pm

At a nonprofit theatre, everyone earns scale, and the minimum is lower than that of a commercially-produced production. So someone like Jesse Tyler Ferguson will earn the same as Ken Marks. Sometimes the nonprofit production can figure out workarounds, especially if a commercial co-producer is involved –– such as a "holding fee" for a possible commercial transfer, or a "media fee," or some other fictional justification to add some money to their salary –– but that's not very common.

Commercial productions with stars are entirely different, and the amount that a person earns depends on their name-value. But someone like Jesse Williams or Mary Louise Parker doesn't have nearly as much box office value as the people mentioned below:

From the NY Post in 2016: Midler will get $150,000 per week, plus a percentage of the box office plus merchandising. The source added that Midler’s piece of the box office goes up if the show hauls in $1 million per week. Julia Roberts reportedly raked in $150,000 per week while starring in “Three Days of Rain” in 2006, which included a piece of the box-office action. Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane reportedly made upward of $100,000 in “The Producers.”

From Forbes in 2019: Bryan Cranston is earning union minimum rather than taking a star-sized salary. This means he's only making $2,095 a week, the same as everyone else onstage. [After the show recoups,] he's entitled to a significant chunk of the net profits: 25.2% to be exact, according to the LLC's operating agreement. Assuming grosses stay at their present height, this means Cranston will be walking away with about $90,000 a week, or $1 million by the end of the run.

[jakethesnake]

Posted: 5/7/22 at 5:03pm

The Broadway minimum is close to $2400 now.  And that’s the bare minimum, what an ensemble person starts at before they get any required payments for understudying, swing fee, etc. Stars will make significantly more than that. 

[soulmistin]

Posted: 5/7/22 at 8:17pm

Just so you know, while I was the person who said the original was too personal, I didn’t do anything to contribute to its deletion. I didn’t report it or anything like that.