Stranger Things has been a tentpole series on Netflix essentially since it premiered on the streamer in 2016. Now, following the overwhelming success of the fourth season, and with the fifth and final season of Stranger Things on the way, the cast is reportedly set to make a lot of money.
In a report from Puck, via Uproxx, the cast of the Duffer brothers' hit series closed on their contracts for the fifth season. According to the article, the cast went into negotiations together and were grouped into three tiers.
Tier one is made up of the adult actors. This includes Winona Ryder (Joyce) and David Harbour (Hopper), who will reportedly make $9.5 million for Season 5.
Tier two is the original ensemble of kids, including Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas), Noah Schnapp (Will) and Finn Wolfhard (Mike) as well as Sadie Sink (Max), who joined the cast in Season 2. These actors are projected to make a little over $7 million this season.
Tier three is the actors who fall between the ages of the adults and the kids. This group includes Joe Keery (Steve), Natalia Dyer (Nancy), Maya Hawke (Robin) and Charlie Heaton (Jonathan), who are reportedly making $6 million on the final season.
According to the article, tier four is “everybody else,” and they are making “much less.”
Now, you might have noticed, Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) was not mentioned in any of these tiers. That’s because, according to the article, she’s in a category of her own, and likely making more than all the other actors. Per the report, her tier is “record-breaking,” and she signed a “separate (and ridiculously lucrative) overall deal with Netflix.” This separate deal makes a lot of sense, considering she is also the star and producer of the ever-evolving Enola Holmes movies.
It’s also noted that this is a massive raise for everyone involved. Ryder and Harbour reportedly made $2.8 million on Season 3, which means they are getting a raise that is well over $6 million. Meanwhile, the kids reportedly earned $25,000 per episode during Season 1, also marking a major bump in income for the young ensemble.
Going into the final season of a show that has consistently broken records for Netflix, and single-handedly helped streaming get a major victory over cable, these raises make complete sense. Plus with the actors being in higher demand for other projects – I mean just look at Sadie Sink’s upcoming projects for example – it seems natural that the beloved stars of Stranger Things would receive substantial pay bumps.
It seems obvious to me that these pay increases are well-deserved for the hard-working cast. They’ve been with the show for so long, and with the fifth and final season on the way, I’m sure they will produce a product that lives up to the high bar set by the first four seasons.
Season 5 of Stranger Things won't appear on the 2023 TV schedule since it’s such a high-budget and complex show to create, and the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes have caused delays for most productions in Hollywood. While we wait to see the final adventure, you can watch the first four seasons of the sci-fi phenomenon with a Netflix subscription.
