From Movie Star To Assistant: How Much Do Hollywood Jobs Pay?

April 2024 · 2 minute read

Salaries in Hollywood are all over the place. Sure, Dwayne Johnson is the highest paid actor – he scored a $19 million payday for his work on Jumanji alone – but the average assistant to a talent agent is lucky to be able to pay rent in Los Angeles on just $30,000 a year. Sure, there are perks to working in Hollywood like exposure to stars, premieres, award shows, and cast off swag, but that's nothing compared to the average one bedroom apartment rent of nearly $2,300!

Fortunately, assistants work their way up in the industry. They become agents and studio executives and screenwriters and show runners – and that's when you bring home the truly big money that Hollywood has to offer. David Geffen, who has a net worth of $6.9 billion, started as an assistant at the William Morris Agency, for example.

 Aaron Davidson/Getty Images

Aaron Davidson/Getty Images

From film actors to TV actors to directors, producers, agents, screenwriters, and more – let's take a look at what the top earners in show business make. As they say, "there's no business like show business…"

Film Actor

Dwayne Johnson

Salary: $19 million for Jumanji

TV Actors

Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Johnny Galecki

Salary: $1 million per episode for The Big Bang Theory

Newscaster

Matt Lauer

Salary: $25 million for Today Show

Runners Up:

Bill O'Reilly

Salary: $20 million for The O'Reilly Factor

Robin Roberts

Salary: $18 million for Good Morning America

Megyn Kelly

Salary: $10 million for The Kelly Files

Director

Christopher Nolan

Salary: $20 million plus 20% of box office gross

Producer

Scott Rudin

Salary: $2.5 million upfront plus a percentage of the box office gross

Screenwriter

Simon Kinberg

Salary: $8 million plus $350,000 per week for rewrites for X Men: Apocalypse

Show Runner

Vince Gilligan

Salary: $50,000 per episode for Better Call Saul

Agents

Ari Emanuel – WME-IMG

Richard Lovett – CAA

Salary: $10 million +

Studio Head

Stacey Snider

Salary: estimated $5 million for Co-Chair of 20th Century Fox

CEO

Les Moonves

Salary: $56.8 million for CBS

Digital

Felix Kjellberg

Salary: $15 million for You Tube Channel PewDiePie

Other:

Animator: $105,000

Boom Operator: $80,000

Makeup Artist: $79,500

Craft Services: $65,000

Assistant: $30,000

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