Yes, Dylan Sprouse has a suite life—but it’s not from residuals.
The Disney Channel alum got candid about his pay as a former child star, revealing that he hasn’t received “a single f–king residual” for starring inThe Suite Life of Zack & Codywith his twin brother Cole Sprouse.
“The only residual check I’ve ever received forThe Suite Life at all was a crossover episode with Hannah Montanafor five cents,” Dylan shared on the Nov. 3 episode of his and Brendan Columbus‘ Wildmenpodcast. “In a time where residuals would have been great, not a single paycheck for being arguably one of the most popular shows on television.”
Dylan went on to point out that The Suite Life—which also costarred Brenda Song, Ashley Tisdale, Kim Rhodes and Phill Lewis—was beating The Sopranos in ratings during its three-season run from 2005 to 2008.
“That pops in my head every once in a while,” the 34-year-old continued, adding that The Suite Life was “translated into 80 different languages” so it could be broadcasted in different countries. “That’s insane.”
What’s more the cast had a “bizarre contract” that allowed Disney to shoot as many episodes of The Suite Life in one calendar year and “call it a season.”
“One season, we shot 30 episodes of television,” recalled Phill, who played hotel manager Mr. Moseby. “But they called it one season because they didn’t have to pay us bumps in between.”
E! News has reached out to Disney for comment but hasn’t heard back.
Still, Dylan doesn’t regret his time on the hit children’s show. After all, he made lifelong friends within the cast.
“You were such the force you were on set, as well as still in the bog with us,” Dylan told Phill, 58. “I don’t think that the show would have felt like the family—nor would it have survived even two years—without you because you were the father of the set.”
And that’s why Dylan is totally open to working with the original cast again. As he put it, “I still love everyone to death.”
But that doesn’t mean he’d like to see a Suite Life of Zack & Codyrevival.
“I’m seeing all of these older Disney Channel shows get their reboot, but the reboot’s always sans this and this person,'” the Under Fire star said. “And I go, ‘Well, that’s just not the same.'”
Besides, Dylan believes the original show “lives very well” on streaming platforms for “people who are nostalgic” as well as the next generation.
“I was at a Dodger game recently and a kid came up to me,” he added. “She was like, ‘Did you do a Disney Channel show?’ And I was like, ‘Well, I used to a while ago.’ And she goes, ‘It’s my dad’s favorite show.'”
For more facts and figures on celebrity paychecks, keep reading…
The Jackass star reflected on the “comical” amount of money he was paid for doing death-defying stunts on the MTV series’ first season in 2000.”When it was all said and done, after taxes, I was paid less than $1,500 for the entire first season of Jackass,” the daredevil told Playboy in June 2026. “Before the show came out, my sister kicked me out of the house. I was broke, unemployed, and homeless, and a star on this big MTV show.”
Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence was paid $25 million to star in Adam McKay’s ensemble disaster comedy Don’t Look Up. But her costar and fellow Oscar winner Leonardo DiCapriogot $30 million.”Look, Leo brings in more box office than I do,” Lawrence told Vanity Fair for its’ December 2020/January 2021 issue. “I’m extremely fortunate and happy with my deal. But in other situations, what I have seen—and I’m sure other women in the workforce have seen as well—is that it’s extremely uncomfortable to inquire about equal pay. And if you do question something that appears unequal, you’re told it’s not gender disparity but they can’t tell you what exactly it is.”Her sanguine attitude was hard-fought: When the disparity between Lawrence’s compensation and that of her male costars for 2013’s American Hustle was revealed in the 2014 Sony email hack, it prompted an industry-wide conversation about the gender pay gap in Hollywood.”I’m so fortunate to have my job. My problem is not money,” Lawrence told the U.K.’s Channel 4 News in 2017. “I wasn’t upset that I only got this many millions for a movie. That’s ridiculous. I was angry about the unfairness and inequality.”
The *NSYNC alum revealed that he and his fellow bandmates JC Chasez, Joey Fatone, ChrisKirkpatrick and JustinTimberlake didn’t make much money during their years with the group.”We had a per diem: $35 a day,” he revealed on The Zach Sang Show in 2026. “Our first check was a $10,000 check after years of No. 1 albums, sellout tours. I don’t know how many millions they made off of merchandise because merchandise was insane.””And then they finally gave us a check for $10,000,” he recalled. “You’re like, ‘Oh, thanks.’ We should be grateful for that, been working for free for two, three years now.”
Less comparable to DiCaprio’s salary: The $60,000 “before commissions and taxes” that Jonah Hill was paid for 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street, while the titular wolf made $10 million.”They gave me the lowest amount of money possible,” Hill recalled on The Howard Stern Show in 2014. But it was the chance to appear in a Martin Scorsese movie, so the Moneyball alum wanted to get the deal done before anyone could change their mind.”I would sell my house and give him all my money to work for [Scorsese],” explained Hill, who earned his second Best Supporting Actor nomination for his turn as a squirrelly substance-abusing stockbroker. “This isn’t what you make money for. You do 22 Jump Street or you do other things, and you can pay your rent. I would have done anything in the world. I would do it again in a second. This isn’t about money. You should do things that you care about.”Advertisement
According to Dylan Sprouse, his residuals from filming The Suite Life of Zack & Cody with twin brother Cole Sprouse is anything but suite.”The only residual check I’ve ever received for The Suite Life at all was a crossover episode with Hannah Montana for five cents,” the Disney Channel alum shared during a 2026 episode of his Wildmen podcast. “In a time where residuals would have been great, not a single paycheck for being arguably one of the most popular shows on television.”
While there’s no cash prize for nabbing Dancing With the Stars’ mirrorball trophy, “whoever makes it to the finale, you all get paid up until then,” Jenna Johnson, who won season 33 with partner Joey Graziadei, shared. “And you do get a nice bonus.””If you win,” Johnson, who noted pro contracts are dependent on seniority, continued. “it’s not like you get a million dollars. You’re just getting a cute trophy together.” As for those who say farewell to the ballroom early, well, as she explained, “You’re guaranteed until a certain amount of weeks.” According to multiple reports, dancer salaries start at around $1,200 to $1,600 an episode, which can increase to up to of $100,000 per season. (ABC has not confirmed these reports.) On the flip side, celebrities receive a starting salary of $125,000. As they cha-cha further into the competition, stars receive additional bonuses with the semifinalists and finalists getting paid up to $50,000 extra.
The actress seemingly confirmed that the Friends cast—including Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox,David Schwimmerand Matt LeBlanc—get $20 million in residuals per year from the show re-airing, quipping to The Times in April 2026 that if she had to guess why, it’s “Because Phoebe Buffay was so great?”But in actuality, she praised the talents of her costars for their performances.”I felt I did OK, but Jennifer and Courteney? Amazing,” she raved. “David and Matt? They had me laughing so hard. And then Matthew [Perry]—he was just beyond us all.”
To hear Joe Giudice tell it, his and ex-wifeTeresa Giudice’s salary for season one of The Real Housewives of New Jerseywas nothing to flip over. “We got paid nothing the first season,” he detailed on daughter Gia Giudice’s Casual Chaos podcast in August 2025. “I’ll even say, it was like $25,000. It was ridiculous. But, whatever.”And the ingredientses they put into that initial fame-making season weren’t cheap. “I think the first year we had that big party in my great room,” the father of four reflected. “I think that show cost me $150,000 the first year.”Advertisement
Oprah Winfrey happily accepted only a little bit of green to star in 1985’s The Color Purple.”They were only offering $35,000 to be in this film, and it is the best $35,000 I ever earned,” the billionaire media mogul told Essence in 2023. “It changed everything and taught me so much.”
The actress revealed that she made about $20,000 per episode of Two and a Half Men with a 5 percent raise each season, making about $43,000 for one episode in the final season.
When she scored the role of late Tejana singer Selena Quintanilla in the 1997 biopic Selena, Jennifer Lopez became the first Latina actress to earn $1 million for a film.”I was too young and didn’t know what the hell was going on,” Lopez told Variety in 2019, reflecting on her breakout movie. “It was great they offered me a million dollars. I feel like everyone was making a statement.”And it paved the way for her to make hundreds of millions more, though sometimes her participation doesn’t cost a thing.”I do things because I love them,” Lopez explained to GQ in 2019. “I didn’t get paid a whole bunch of money for Hustlers. I did it for free and produced it. I bank on myself, you know? Like Jenny From the Block—I do what I love.”
Adrien Brody didn’t do The Brutalist for the money. Rather, he took on the role of a Hungarian architect suffering for his art in post-WWII America for $250,000 and won his second Oscar for Best Actor.”I need a studio movie now, because I’ve poured it all into this,” Brody quipped to Variety, referring to the “barn that looks like a castle” he’s renovating in upstate New York.Advertisement
“Do you guys know what they pay us?” Pete Davidsoncracked to New York magazine when asked ahead of Saturday Night Live’s 50th anniversary special how he spent his money when he was first hired at the age of 20 in 2014. “It’s like three grand an episode, so I think I got dinner.”Interestingly, the salaries have remained proportional for SNL newcomers, with season one stars John Belushi, Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase reportedly earning $750 an episode back in 1975. Which was roughly equivalent to $3,300 in 2014, according to the Consumer Price Index Inflation calculator. (Though the $750 of 1975 is $4,428 in 2025.)
While Kenan Thompson makes a lot more than $3,000 per episode of SNL now that he’s in his record 22nd season, the former Nickelodeon star had to start somewhere.”That first commercial when they paid me, it was $800,” the All That alum revealed in Demi Lovato’s 2024 documentary Child Star. “I was 12 so that may as well have been a million dollars.”
It turns out Gilmore Girls’ status as a beloved rewatchable classic is literally priceless.”There really are no residuals on Netflix,” Lauren Graham, who played Lorelai Gilmore for seven seasons and then reprised the role for 2016’s Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, said on Jimmy Kimmel Live in March 2025. “But I’ve been paid in love and appreciation.”
Feeling not so appreciated, Tommy Dorfman got specific about her 13 Reasons Why paycheck during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike—which was prompted in part (as was the WGA strike) by streamers like Netflix not making it a practice to pay additional compensation to cast and crew once a show had become a big hit.”my earnings for the entire first season of 13 reasons why were $29,953.24 prior to agency and manager fees (20%) and taxes,” Dorfman wrote on Threads July 24. “8 episodes over six months.” She continued, “i did all of the promo and had KEY ART for this show, flew round trip from NYC to SF to shoot for every episode, was kept for days without pay/working. i barely qualified for insurance.”And, Dorfman added, “within the first 28 days of release, the show’s season 1 garnered a total of 476 million view hours. this is why we strike.”Advertisement
Without naming names or numbers, Dax Shepard told fellow Parenthood alum Lauren Graham when she appeared on his podcast that he knew he made “among the lowest of all the actors” on their NBC drama, which ran for six seasons.But, the Armchair Expert host stressed that he did not mind.”Every job I had ever had in my life prior to Parenthood, I made a point to find out what everyone was making,” he said. “I’d always figure it out—either a conversation where I get it out of them or I backchannel through an agent.”So he made a point to purposely not seek out such info about his Parenthood family, which helped with enjoying the experience even when he did get an inkling of where he was on the pay pyramid.
“I got a dollar for writing the script,” George Clooney told the Los Angeles Times in 2005 about the financial strings he pulled to get his film Good Night, and Good Luck made. “I had to endorse my check for directing and turn in my acting salary. [Actor, cowriter and coproducer Grant Heslov] and I each made a buck for doing it.”His labor of love about CBS News journalist Edward R. Murrow speaking truth to power in the 1950s had legs, though: Making his Broadway debut, Clooney wrapped his months-long stint playing Murrow in a stage adaptation of the film in June 2025. And with the play having grossed a Broadway record (for a nonmusical) $3.3 million during a preview week before it officially opened April 3, he made a lot more than $1.
For his chilling turn as Patrick Bateman in 2000’s American Psycho, Christian Bale was paid “the absolute minimum they were legally allowed to pay me” because no one in the production really wanted to hire him except director Mary Harron, the Welsh actor told GQ in 2022.He made so little, Bale shared, that he remembered “sitting in the makeup trailer and the makeup artists were laughing at me because I was getting paid less than any of them.”
No, the Game of Thrones cast didn’t get paid $300,000 per episode”We didn’t earn that much,” she told Variety in 2026. “Can you imagine? I’d have been driving a couple of Porsches!”However, the actress—who played Daenerys Targaryen for eight seasons between 2011 and 2019—noted that the money she made throughout the HBO show did provide her with enough financial security to pay off her parents’ mortgage.
Advertisement
His uncle may have been Rico, but Jon Heder confirmed in 2010 that he was “initially” only paid $1,000 for Napoleon Dynamite.After the irreverent comedy became a sleeper hit, he was able to renegotiate for a piece of the profits, telling the New Zealand Herald, “They went a little bit higher.”
Djimon Hounsou said he’s “definitely underpaid” in Hollywood despite his prestigious list of credits, including Amistad and Blood Diamond.”I’ve been in this business and making films now over two decades,” the Beninese actor told CNN’s Larry Madowo in January 2025. “And still—with two Oscar nominations and been in many big blockbuster films—and yet I’m still struggling financially to make a living.”
Rebel Wilson detailed in her 2024 memoir Rebel Rising that she was paid $3,500 to do Bridesmaids, “a fee that I then had to pay directly to the Screen Actors Guild to join the union. So really, I got paid nothing.”Still, she wrote, the experience was “everything!”And the Australian actress’ star rose ever a-ca higher, with her fee going from the SAG minimum scale of $65,000 for 2012’s Pitch Perfect to $10 million for 2017’s Pitch Perfect 3. Wilson wrote that she raked in $20 million total for the threequel, Isn’t It Romantic and The Hustle, though—reality alert—she “lost almost 50 percent to taxes, 10 percent to agents and 5 percent” to her lawyer. But even after those obligations and paying her publicist, business manager and assistant, Wilson “netted what to me was an absolute fortune.”
In late 2017, Ellen Pompeo negotiated a new Grey’s Anatomycontract for $575,000 per episode, a seven-figure signing bonus and two full backend equity points worth an estimated $6 million to $7 million.”I’m 48 now, so I’ve finally gotten to the place where I’m OK asking for what I deserve, which is something that comes only with age,” Pompeo told The Hollywood Reporterin 2018. “Because I’m not the most ‘relevant’ actress out there. I know that’s the industry perception because I’ve been this character for 14 years. But the truth is, anybody can be good on a show season one and two. Can you be good 14 years later? Now, that’s a f–kin’ skill.”Reflecting more recently on how she always made less than costar Patrick Dempsey, even though she was the Grey in question, Pompeo said she didn’t begrudge him his money.But, she said on a March 2025 episode of Call Her Daddy, “Just being that I was the namesake of the show, I deserved the same and that was harder to get. I wasn’t salty about him getting what he got. I was salty that they didn’t value me as much as they valued him and they never will.”
For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App
