3 Years Later, Big Bang Theory Stars Still Making Millions Off the Show
Sometimes your job can make you not only happy, but super rich. It just has to be the right kind of jov. That's the case for the main cast of The Big Bang Theory, who are still cashing in on the show they starred in three years after it ended in 2019.
While the show allowed Kaley Cuoco, Johnny Galecki, and Jim Parsons to make money, it doesn't stop there. Metro reported back in 2019 that the trio would be making a fortune from reruns of the series. And the journalists did what everyone loves to do – they calculated the actors' money.
It's common for actors to receive additional money for their work, as shows continue to air around the world. Cuoco, Galecki, Parsons each own 1 percent worth of The Big Bang Theory 's total earnings for Warner Bros. year-on-year. So what is the figure exactly?
The show brings in about $1 billion a year for the company, and it's not rocket science to calculate how much that is for each of the actors – a staggering $10 million a year. Three years in a row. What a dream job!
It's no secret that the trio is extremely successful. While Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Galecki are worth more than $100 million each, Jim Parson is worth even more than that – $160 million, and in 2017 he was named the highest-earning male TV actor.
Of course, this is a far cry from such Hollywood heavyweights as Tom Hanks or Tom Cruise, whose individual net worth is estimated at around $600 million. The latter, by the way, became the highest-grossing actor in 2022. He earned about $100 million for his role in Top Gun: Maverick. But Hanks and Cruise are by far not the richest celebrities.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, the richest of all is Oprah Winfrey, who is worth $3.5 billion and earns an astounding $315 million a year. When you compare that to what Cuoco, Galecki, and Parsons made for a single episode in The Big Bang Theory final season – around $1 million – their salaries look pretty modest.
Kaley Cuoco once opened up to Variety about what it was like to earn that kind of money.
"We looked at each other [Johnny Galecki] and we were like, 'What the hell just happened?'" she said.
They did not know what to do – if they should celebrate somehow and have a dinner or something. "It was a blessing," Cuoco added, because such a life-changing paycheck allowed her to "take care of a lot of things in my life and my family, and I will forever be grateful for that.