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 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
