Stranger Things is wildly popular. Its success is often considered surprising, but ’80s nostalgia and supernatural shows are in big demand. I guess it was a gamble that the first season’s cast was mostly unknown, with the exception of Winona Ryder and Matthew Modine. Apparently, they were all paid accordingly. Now that the show has done gangbusters, the cast renegotiated and shockingly, Netflix did the right thing and gave all involved a pay raise. For the four main kids – Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin and Noah Schnapp, that will mean going from $20,000 an episode to $250,000.
The stars of Stranger Things are cashing in on the Netflix series’ wild success.
The cast of the Emmy-nominated show have scored major pay raises following an intense renegotiation ahead of the sci-fi drama’s third season. Sources say the new pacts for the child actors are worth roughly 12 times their previous deals, and that the streaming giant is ponying up as much as $350,000 an episode for each of the show’s adult actors. Insiders say the deals closed last week as production on season three is scheduled to begin April 23. Netflix declined comment.
According to sources, the main actors are divided into different pay tiers. Winona Ryder (Joyce) and David Harbour (Jim Hopper) make up the “A tier” and are making up to $350,000 an episode. The “B tier” consists of the young stars – Finn Wolfhard (Mike), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas) and Noah Schnapp (Will) – who are each collecting $250,000 per episode. Meanwhile, the actors in the “C tier” – onscreen teenagers Natalia Dyer (Nancy), Charlie Heaton (Jonathan) and Joe Keery (Steve) – are each pocketing roughly $150,000 an episode.
What remains a mystery is where the show’s 14-year-old breakout, Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), landed among those tiers, as her camp has been tight-lipped throughout the dealmaking process. What is known, however, is that Brown, as The Hollywood Reporter reported last year, separated herself from the rest of the cast during the renegotiation, and is at least making the $250,000 that the other younger actors are earning. But some sources suggest Brown may be getting even more, possibly the $350,000 per episode that Ryder and Harbour are making. Others balk at the idea of Brown earning as much Ryder, an Oscar-nominated actress who has been working for three decades, and say the young starlet is instead in her own tier of $300,000 in between the adults and the other kids.
Regardless of Brown’s exact salary, the hefty pay bumps represent massive raises for television stars. Even though the actors were each given bonuses of about $60,000 once it became clear that the show was a phenomenon, a renegotiation was all but a given heading into the drama’s third season. Sources say the child actors were making in the low $20,000 range for the first and second seasons of the series, while Ryder’s per-episode rate was pegged at around $100,000 and Harbour’s at $80,000. The raises mean that the young castmembers are earning a whopping 1,150 percent more than what they were previously making on the show.
Those kids are making a salary commensurate with the demand for the show – good for them. I’m happy to hear Winona was the top earner for season one, as it should be. This is great news and I hate to put such a cynical spin on it but after the disastrous news about headliner Claire Foy being paid less that Matt Smith on The Crown, Netflix needed this PR. (Honestly though, the fact that they gave bonuses on this show and not to Foy still makes them look bad #justiceforthequeen!)
I want to know more about this Millie Bobby Brown business, though. She was a huge breakout in her role and had to shave her head, so I wouldn’t have questioned her being compensated for that. However, given the secrecy of negotiations what we’ve heard about her stage parents, it sounds like there’s more to that story.
Photo credit: WENN Photos
Millie’s parents will be very pleased.
Shame on me as that was my first thought as well. Millie seems a really lovely girl but her parents have shades of the Lohans. I really hope that she doesn’t end up going down the route many child stars have gone down.
That was my first thought as well. Apparently she supports her whole family? That is very worrisome, and too much of a burden for a child. Hopefully this big pay increase will allow money to be set aside for her future as well.
I just wanna be wrong about Millie’s parents for her sake.
Definitely Shades of Lohan :((
Well fair enough. He’s doing essential and important work. His wage should reflect that.
Claire Foy should be justifiably angry.
Absolutely. If I were her, I get my agent on the phone, and start asking Netflix where her bonus is. Matt may have been a slightly bigger name in the beginning, she was the one who brought awards and carried the weight of the show. A bonus to even the playing field was in order.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Millie made more. The kids seemed close the first year but it seemed like Millie separated herself the second year. She did a lot more carpets and interviews alone. She is the breakout so it’s not a surprise Millie and her team are taking advantage of it.
I would say the Millie is being pushed to be the breakout and that the breakaway from the rest of the child cast is deliberate by her managers (aka her parents) who want her to be the star even though it’s the whole cast who make the show what it is.
Her father is already disliked by Hollywood, so we’ll see if her career goes further than the show.
There have been rumblings about her stage parents for over a year now. Pushing her to separate herself, dress older and running her to the point of exhaustion.
It’s very telling how the other parents treat their kids versus MBB.
Yes the fact that they gave up their oen careers and income to make a child the family breadwinner tells me all I need to know about them. She’s a cash cow that allows them to live their dreams through. Am sure sometime in the future we’ll hear stories about how badly her money was handled by them and that she is broke. I fear this is not going to end well for her, it never does with stage parents who manage the finances.
I watched parts of the show and to be honest several of the other kids are better actors than she is.
Agreed, Noah was the standout in season 2.
It’s ironic to me that she’s the breakout because all the other kids can act circles around her, imo.
I keep my eyes on Finn Wolfhard. He might be the one that makes it. Plus he has a pretty cool name surname combo.
I agree. I think the other kids have come into their own. It was definitely less of a shining season for her above the others
She was fantastic in season1 but the other kids have grown in range while she seemed stagnant. I think Noah Schnapp and Finn Wolfhard came off as standouts in season 2.
Really? Noah Schnapp is fantastic but MBB wasn’t slacking in season 2, I thought she was nailing it even in the terrible punk episode (which was let down by bad writing and bad supporting performances, not by Millie’s own performance).
I agree that Noah was the standout in S2. Millie (and the whole Eleven storyline in general) was a letdown in S2, and it makes me think that a huge factor in her breakout in S1 was how visually striking it was, with her shaved head and all.
I don’t want to speak ill of a child, but I cannot stand the character Mike. I would be happy if he had to move away.
You guys are discounting the fact that her character holds the most fascination for viewers in her age bracket. For teen girls, especially tweens, her following is huge and her fans are rabid. They may not care about the technical perfection of her acting. Gossip Girl or Wizards of Waverly Place anyone?
Fair point, absolutely. When your character is memorialized in countless Halloween costumes, you know it’s become pretty iconic. In season one she did better because she was required to be reserved and quiet and mostly unemotional. When she had to stretch, her limited range became more apparent.
I can definitely see it, Eleven holds a similar fascination for my nieces to the one Buffy held for me as a tween/teen, or that Hermione Granger had for the generation in between despite Emma Watson being a far weaker actress than Millie to this day.
I don’t think people are saying that she shouldn’t be paid differently, so much as the fact that her stage parents have made a conscious decision to separate her from the rest of the cast as a whole. She doesn’t do any of the group promo work or anything like that.
No they’re still close. She’s especially close to Noah because they’re the same age and younger than the others. They call each other BFFs all the time. She also regularly hangs out with the other boys – they all seem tight.
They are extremely lucky and I am happy for them! The show is alright, but I really don’t get the hype. I mean, I watched it. And I like Hopper, etc. But I just don’t get the crazy popularity. It’s funny how some things hit the way they do
I thought season 2 was awful , self aware and boring so won’t be tuning into a third.
I didn’t hate season 2 but I hear you. Looking at the big group photo I was reminded again about the stupid storyline with the punks.
Hopefully a responsible adult will oversee their finances to ensure their money is kept safe and untouched. Whenever child actors make a lot of money, greedy adults descend.
So true.
I saw an interview once with the kids, they were all kids except Millie came off as an adult. I felt sad looking at it. I like kids being kids, you have a whole lifetime of being adults.
Aren’t part of the minors’ earning legally required to be put in trust?
Personally, Finn is looking like the true breakout star here..he’s signed up to more projects than all of them, his little band and ep.
People loved Millie at first, but I think the way she was pushed to separate from the rest of them worked the wrong way, even if she’s being better paid. She has sponsors but she looks exhausted. While the rest of them are close and obviously just enjoying being kids
Doubtful that Finn will have a meaningful adult career. Like many male child actors, he has feminine facial features that make him cute as a kid but an awkward looking man. The ratio of boy actors to girl actors who matriculate to adult careeers is extremely low exactly for this reason.
The other thing is that this show doesn’t actually have a large viewership. It will live on in the culture because of its most unusual character, Eleven. Because even people who haven’t seen the show know the reference of a bald girl in a hospital gown and a nose bleed. You’ll see at least two Elevens at any given Halloween party.
Also, I’m sorry but Finn is playing a too standard archetype. It works against him in the same way we can’t remember any of the characters (or the actors) his part is based on.
The curly haired toothless kid on the other hand….
As for Millie, the pervs are already running a clock on her to be legal. And I’m not joking. There are social media accounts devoted to that. Between that and Elevens place in the cultural psyche, she will be around in a very visible way for atleast the next decade.
The kid (Finn Wolfhard) has great bone structure, gorgeous hair and he’s tall and slender. How does that work against him? I see him growing up to be at the least interesting looking and quite possibly beautiful.
You can’t possibly know the future outcome of his career, that is just plain silly. What people can look at is the current projects he has booked or is booking. Which, comparatively speaking, is ahead or on par with most of the cast.
Millie had a great head start with how much buzz she got in S1, but her parents seem hell bent of destroying the goodwill she has built up.
Good on them, they’ve earned it and I’m happy Winona got the biggest salary on S1 since well, she is an icon and the show was sold on her name at first. I’m so happy to see her take a major role in something good again, it really felt like this was long overdue for her.
I hope Millie’s pay bump means she doesn’t have to do so many conventions now and her stage parents actually set a decent amount of that money aside for her future. She’s getting more than the boys but she and Eleven remain the most recognisable of the younger cast plus she has the following to justify it, if you can’t leverage that kind of crazy fan base during a salary negotiation then what is the point?
I don’t get the allure of this show. I don’t get why anyone over twelve loves it.
It’s fun.
I think all those kids are being overpaid! The show is popular but it’s not that popular. Netflix is never going to make money if they keep overspending on original programming.
Overpaid? To me, it’s nice to see some semblance of fairness and profit sharing in an industry that is so ruthless. The shelf life of actors is also so fleeting in most cases.
Hmm, I think she should be included with the other children. Her parents sound crazy and her supporting her entire family is not a good sign.
Happy to see Netflix paying for talent and good original storytelling. Is it a perfect show? No. But it sure is a fun piece of entertainment. Super fun family viewing with our young teens. We enjoyed watching the kids’ reactions to a modern depiction of life in the 1980s and catching the references to the movies and themes of our youth. Loved the various cameos and seeing Winona back on the screen.