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.
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
Salary: $25 million for Today Show
Runners Up:
Bill O'Reilly
Salary: $20 million for The O'Reilly Factor
Salary: $18 million for Good Morning America
Salary: $10 million for The Kelly Files
Director
Salary: $20 million plus 20% of box office gross
Producer
Salary: $2.5 million upfront plus a percentage of the box office gross
Screenwriter
Salary: $8 million plus $350,000 per week for rewrites for X Men: Apocalypse
Show Runner
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
Salary: $56.8 million for CBS
Digital
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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