The 1990s saw a huge shift in the entertainment industry, particularly on the small screen where shows like Friends changed the game and reconfigured pop culture as we knew it. Jennifer Aniston was able to use her starring role on the series to become a household name, eventually turning into someone that tabloids couldn’t leave alone. The series continues to be a massive success that maintains a huge following.
Successful television shows are able to pay their lead performers top dollar for their work in front of the camera, and the cast of Friends made sure to cash in when the show was in its prime on NBC.
Let’s take a look at just how much money Jennifer Aniston was hauling in while she was starring on Friends!
Her Initial Contract
Friends seemed to take off from the jump, but the network wasn’t exactly ready to start dishing out massive bucks for the unknown commodity. As such, the first season of the show saw its lead actors making a modest sum of money compared to what they would eventually make down the road.
Jennifer Aniston, along with the other lead actors on Friends, would take in $22,500 each episode during the first season of the show, according to Business Insider. No, it’s not a number that is nearly as high as people are expecting, but for someone trying to make it in the business, this must have been a nice chunk of change at first.
One thing that would happen as time went on is that the cast would get steady increases in pay as the seasons went along. This, of course, is due to the show becoming a massive hit with audiences of all ages. By the time season 5 rolled around, the cast of the show was finally making $100,000 each episode, which is no chump change.
As nice as it was that their pay increased quite dramatically over the years, their six-figure pay would pale in comparison to their highest-paying season, which set the bar for other performers on other top shows.
Million Dollar Rachel
Friends was the hottest show on television, and the cast was netting six figures per episode, but as the world would quickly see, the money train kept rolling in and growing as the show marched towards its conclusion.
Entering the show’s ninth season, it was clear that the actors were seeking higher pay. After all, the series had been a mainstay on the network for years and it was still blowing others show’s viewership out the water. Many figured that the cast could make a little bit more, but seeing as how they were already making $750,000 each episode, per Business Insider, there was belief that there was very little room to negotiate.
Once the cast made their demands, the network decided to play ball, and each member got a significant pay boost. Their $1 million pay for each episode of Friends was a total game changer that shocked the industry. It is exceptionally rare to see someone make this type of money, but the entire cast pulling down a salary like this is just wild.
This wound up being the salary that the cast would make for the final two seasons of the show, meaning that they were lining their pockets as much as possible before the show was finally yanked from the network. What’s important to note here is that the show’s massive success meant that it was in line for syndication, which was only going to make the cast of the show all the richer.
The Money Train Keeps Rolling
Now, as many people are aware, the $1 million per episode pay that the cast was getting was a massive number at the time, but this is nothing compared to how things have been playing out for everyone involved in the series since the show ended. In fact, it’s only the beginning.
Given that Friends is still one of the most popular shows of all time, it has continued to haul in a ton of money for its network. What this means is that the cast of the show, thanks to some nifty negotiating, has been collecting on royalties this entire time! The crazy thing about this is that their royalties are more than enough to retire on each year.
CinemaBlend reports that the cast of the show makes around $20 million each year just off of royalties from the series. This means that all of the work that they did 20 years ago is still making them more money that some people will generate in their entire lives. Naturally, the cast does not have to do much these days, but they still take on projects.
Jennifer Aniston went from modest pay to superstar salary back when the show was on the air, and these days, she gets to sit back and laugh all the way to the bank as the hard work she put in back in the day continues to make her massive amount of cash.
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