How much did the Firefly cast get paid? by Succatash

FIREFLY EPISODE DISCUSSIONS

How much did the Firefly cast get paid?

POSTED BY: SUCCATASH
UPDATED: Wednesday, June 25, 2003 15:07
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Wednesday, June 4, 2003 4:03 PM

SUCCATASH

I am wondering how much money each Firefly actor got paid, and who got paid the most? Second most?

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Wednesday, June 4, 2003 4:09 PM

CAPTBAGGYTROUSERS

For God's sake man- it's about the love!

History repeats the old conceits

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Wednesday, June 4, 2003 4:11 PM

SUCCATASH

Well, I want to produce a movie or video someday. The budget is a major factor in any project, and I like to understand all aspects of production.

It has been reported that Firefly was 2 million per episode to produce. I wonder how much goes to the actors.

Reality TV is so cheap to produce in comparison. It's a problem I'd like to solve.

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Wednesday, June 4, 2003 4:12 PM

SLOWSMURF

Logically speaking, the star of the show, Nathan(Mal) should get paid the most...but thats not always true.

If it helps you guess, I believe its generally accepted they got 2 million per episode, including everything.

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Wednesday, June 4, 2003 5:03 PM

JIMMYJAMES

2 million doesnt seem like a whole lot. a "reality" show would be over 1 million i would figure. 1 million for the prize money and a bunch for the crew and cameras and post production editing, but i guess that wouldn't be too much. video games cost about 2 - 5 million to make.

and then there's "friends"... i think this next season every main actor is getting 1 million per episode... that's just sick. i have no idea what the budget for something like Enterprise would be though. would be interesting to compair. i think the Enterpise actors would get paid more. especial Bakula since he is fairly well known.

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do you know what the chain of command is? it's the chain i go get and beat you with till you understand who's in rutten command here

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Wednesday, June 4, 2003 5:22 PM

SUCCATASH

My guess is that everyone got paid the same, except Nathon Fillion got a little more.

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Wednesday, June 4, 2003 6:36 PM

KOFFEE

But there begs the question of Ron's pay being that he is such a well known actor and has been in the biz for so long. Would he get paid a little more due to his being so recognizable to the audience? I don't necessarily mean more overall, but more on average if you compare pay to the amount of screen time.

EX. Nate 40 min screen time and paid $10,000

Ron 20 min of screen time and paid $7,000

In reality Ron would be getting paid more in comparison. But, since we don't really know what they were paid, this is all purely speculation on my part.

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“It's a real burn, being right so often.”

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Wednesday, June 4, 2003 6:36 PM

SIRENKAIN

My guess would be Fillion and Baldwin got more then the rest. Either way, I sure it was not enough.

River: The human body can be drained of blood in 8.6 seconds, given adequate vacuuming systems.
Mal: See, morbid and creep-ifying I got no problem with, long as she does it quiet-like.

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Wednesday, June 4, 2003 7:03 PM

SUCCATASH

To clarify, let's stick to Dollar per Minute screen time pay. This changes things. Koffee, you are smart. Nathan may have made the most money but he also worked the hardest.

Ok, I have a feeling I'm committing some kind of Fandom Taboo, but here's my best guess:

Highest Paid (dollar/minute screen time)

1. Ron Glass (Book)
2. Nathan Fillion (Mal), Adam Baldwin (Jayne)
3. Summer (River), Gina (Zoe)
4. Alan (Wash), Morena (Inara), Sean (Simon), Jewel (Kaylee)

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Wednesday, June 4, 2003 7:11 PM

KAYTHRYN

Succatash,
I think Summer should be moved down and Alan, Sean, and Jewel moved up since they've all been in many other movies and TV shows.

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It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Aristotle

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Wednesday, June 4, 2003 7:26 PM

SUCCATASH

Give it to me, girl! What's your list? When I first watched the show, I recognized Ron Glass right away, and later on Adam Baldwin from "My Bodyguard" but I was introduced for the first time to the rest of the all-star cast. Except I do remember Gina Torres from Xena, after I was reminded she was in it.

I love a little history lesson about what others have done.

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Wednesday, June 4, 2003 7:56 PM

LUPA

Here's how I think it went down in dollars/screen time:

1. Nathan (hey, he's the star, plus lots of TV experience)
2. Ron, Adam (Ron: the biggest name but he has so little screen time, Adam: one of the biggest names and largest of the supporting roles)
4. Alan (not a big name, but a definate "hey: it's that guy!" and lots of movie, if not TV experience)
5. Gina (bigger part, not as well known)
6. Jewel (lots of TV experience, but still not a big name)
7. Sean (TV experience, but less than Jewel, not a big name)
8. Morena (Virtually no prior on-camera experience, no name, smaller part)
9. Summer (young, inexperienced, smaller part)

"I don't get it. Is it Avante Garde?" Principal Snyder, BTVS

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Wednesday, June 4, 2003 7:59 PM

KAYTHRYN

1. Sean-- 'cause he's so damn cute
2. Ron, Nathan, Adam, Alan
3. Gina, Jewel
4. Summer, Morena

I don't know everything that everyone has done, but I only remember Summer from like one episode of Angel. Sean Maher stared in Brian’s song, the &treet, and Ryan Caulfield was in CSI Miami, and Party of five. I know Alan has been in bunches of things, but the only one that comes to mind right now is A knights Tale. And I remember Jewel from some space show when I was a kid.

Also, you can search for their bios at http://us.imdb.com

I'm just to lazy to look right now :)

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It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Aristotle

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Thursday, June 5, 2003 12:50 PM

CHRISTHECYNIC

Quote:
Originally posted by Succatash:
Well, I want to produce a movie or video someday. The budget is a major factor in any project, and I like to understand all aspects of production.

It has been reported that Firefly was 2 million per episode to produce. I wonder how much goes to the actors.

Reality TV is so cheap to produce in comparison. It's a problem I'd like to solve.

For movies sometimes (rarely) the big stars get a percent so if the movie flops the get squat, but if it does really well they get more then they would have at their I'm-a-big-star-rate.

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Thursday, June 5, 2003 1:43 PM

SLOWSMURF

I don't follow your logic there. whats special about gina and summer?

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Thursday, June 5, 2003 2:46 PM

SUCCATASH

Quote:
Originally posted by SlowSmurf:
I don't follow your logic there. whats special about gina and summer?

I wonder if they get paid per episode or based on screen time?

I am confusing myself as well. I think it's Koffee's fault, because of her post:
Koffee: "I don't necessarily mean more overall, but more on average if you compare pay to the amount of screen time.

EX. Nate 40 min screen time and paid $10,000

Ron 20 min of screen time and paid $7,000

In reality Ron would be getting paid more in comparison."

Summer really didn't have as much air time as Gina. If they got paid the same per minute of air time, then Gina made more money because she worked longer. But River is such an important character, I'm sure she was paid properly for her time.

I'm thinking it doesn't happen this way, though. How does it work?

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Thursday, June 5, 2003 2:51 PM

SUCCATASH

Okay, I know actors have agents and they bicker behind closed doors to negotiate.

But what does that really mean? In the news we hear about so and so being paid a MILLION dollars per episode.

So is it "per episode" or "per minute"? Or both? Bill Clinton was paid by the minute to appear on Sixty Minutes.

Now I'm rambling. Need. Beer.

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Thursday, June 5, 2003 3:01 PM

SLOWSMURF

Ah ok, I forgot you were going by screentime. Yeah, of course river got more per minute cause she was there less.

I think Book for example would be used far more a bit later in the series. Like he was in war stories(as an example)

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Thursday, June 5, 2003 3:19 PM

SUCCATASH

I wonder if Ron Glass wasn't in Trash very much because by then he had "run out of hours?"

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Thursday, June 5, 2003 3:27 PM

SUCCATASH

Fox: Okay, the character of River is important to the plot of Firefly but she's going to average less than 10 minutes of screen time per episode. We're offering Summer $10,000 per episode.

Summer's Agent: She'll take it. But any episode with over 15 minutes of screen time carries a $5,000 bonus and $200 per minute overtime fee.

Fox: Make it a $1,000 bonus and $150 per minute overtime fee.

Summer's Agent: We'll take it. I mean she'll take it.

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Friday, June 6, 2003 9:44 AM

JAVIDRHO

Just did a Google search and found the following site listing 1999 salaries from the SAG (Screen Actor's Guild). - This is general information (not official) and lists only "minimum salaries", but it might help with understanding TV show budgets, etc.

http://www.unh.edu/theatre-dance/jobs&prob-pay.html

BTW, My Google search string was the following:
"TV show "production cost" actor salary"

"Remember, shoot the man, not the horse.
Dead horse is cover, live horse is a great pile of panic." -Mal

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Friday, June 6, 2003 12:55 PM

SUCCATASH

Thanks for that great link, it is very interesting.

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Monday, June 9, 2003 2:20 PM

SUCCATASH

What do you think the budget for the new Firefly movie will be?

40 million? 60? 100?

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Monday, June 9, 2003 2:57 PM

JASONZZZ

Does it list what kind of residues actors generally receive for syndications, re-airs, etc.

Quote:
Originally posted by JavidRho:
Just did a Google search and found the following site listing 1999 salaries from the SAG (Screen Actor's Guild). - This is general information (not official) and lists only "minimum salaries", but it might help with understanding TV show budgets, etc.

http://www.unh.edu/theatre-dance/jobs&prob-pay.html

BTW, My Google search string was the following:
"TV show "production cost" actor salary"

"Remember, shoot the man, not the horse.
Dead horse is cover, live horse is a great pile of panic." -Mal

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Monday, June 9, 2003 5:02 PM

CYRIDEL

Edit: Weird, it didn't put the quote in...

Quote:
What do you think the budget for the new Firefly movie will be?

40 million? 60? 100?

Hopefully much lower than that. I would hope that if they spent $2 million for about 45 minutes of tv then for 2 hours they could spend only about $10 million or so. As much as I love Firefly, and I know everyone else here does as well, I really don't think this is gonna be a big blockbuster. It just doesn't have the fan base for a Spider-Man, X-Men, Star Trek, Star Wars, Matrix opening. It needs to be one of those movies that doesn't cost much and makes back 5 or 6 (or more) times what it cost. That might make the execs look at it and say "Hey, this makes a pretty good profit. Let's fire up another movie and bring the series back."

I really don't think that Joss would fall into the whole special effects bonanza that other Scifi movies have fallen into. The two "Star" franchises really seem to have fallen into the idea that if they have huge impressive special fx then the story won't really matter. I would think that Joss looks at it the other way. He'll do story first and worry about the fx only if it's important to the story. So hopefully they can keep the costs down and the profits up.

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Monday, June 9, 2003 5:31 PM

LONE

The 2001 SAG rates are available here: http://www.sag.org/theatrical_contracts/theatrical-tv.html

hope that helps...

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Thursday, June 12, 2003 8:12 AM

MALFIREFLY

Adam is also in uhh the Patriot, so, just thought I would add that in there to help Adam.
-S1

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Thursday, June 12, 2003 10:35 AM

MATWANG

I read somewhere, on one of these Firefly threads, that the cost per episode was 2 million, but that a good portion of that figure was licensing paid to Fox, and the actual episodes cost far less to produce.

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Thursday, June 12, 2003 1:07 PM

DUTCH

I bet they got paid more than I make :D

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Thursday, June 12, 2003 8:29 PM

DMAN[WARLLAMAS]

My 'guess' is something like this:

$20k-25+k/eps:
Nathan Fillion (Mal)
Adam Baldwin (Jayne)
Gina (Zoe)

$15k-20k/eps:
Ron Glass (Book)

$10k-15k/eps:
Alan (Wash)
Sean (Simon)
Jewel (Kaylee)

$7k-10k/eps:
Summer (River)
Morena (Inara)

Depending on their contract, they probably agreed to a set number of eps and get paid every two weeks based on that amount.

Someone on this site has to have a connection in Hollywood for this kind of info. Any IRS agents around here?

Nice post for speculation.
[)-man[WarLlamas]

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Wednesday, June 25, 2003 3:07 PM

VETERAN

Don't squat with your spurs on.

Dman.

I believe you're on the money.

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