Does Charlie Sheen still get royalties?
'Two and a Half Men' Royalties
At the time, Fox News speculated that Sheen would go on to earn $100 million more from the show on royalties alone. In 2016, however, the Associated Press reported that Sheen sold his profit participation rights for $27 million.
Sheen was very generously compensated for his work—during his final season, he was paid $1.8 million per episode. Despite being fired from Two and a Half Men for his “dangerously self-destructive conduct,” he briefly continued to hold his position as the highest-paid actor on television.
Actors (other than background actors) get paid again when a performance is rerun. In TV's past, those payments ended after a certain number of replays; now they can go on forever — making those “Law & Order” reruns an annuity for the actors.
Even though there was a time he was worth more than $100 million, the countless bad decisions have brought his fortune down to $10 million. Charlie Sheen has been through some important moments that have made him lose a lot of money over the years.
Residuals are administered by the unions—SAG-AFTRA, the Directors Guild of America (DGA), and the Writers Guild of America (WGA)—for their members, who are paid between one and four months after the air date. According to SAG-AFTRA, it processes around 1.5 million residual checks a year.
Jones made millions working on Two and a Half Men — he was the highest paid child actor on television — and continues to reap royalties.
Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer
Cryer went on for four more seasons alongside replacement Ashton Kutcher, but Sheen and Cryer have similar amounts of money off of reruns, as each has taken in over $20 million since the show wrapped.
“Then I made a couple of thousand and then probably by the end is when I started making series quotes but that money came and went immediately,” she said, adding the cast doesn't receive residuals from the show, which ran from 1999 to 2007. “I didn't spend enough time on the show to really make money,” de Matteo said.
When shows are syndicated, redistributed, released on DVD, purchased by a streaming service or otherwise used beyond what the actors were originally paid for, those actors get residual checks called royalties.
“If you're doing a show and you're not an executive producer and own it, then you get residuals which can amount to checks from $2 to $2,000.” These days, the Tanner family is focused on the next generation thanks to Netflix's “Fuller House” reboot.
Do actors get paid every time a commercial airs?
Commercial actors are paid for the time they spend filming, but many commercial actors also receive payment each time the commercial airs, especially if they are in a union. Payments for each time the commercial airs are usually called residuals or royalties.
Tom Cruise is the highest paid Hollywood actor, earning more than $100 million for Top Gun: Maverick, followed by Will Smith. Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Dwayne Johnson, Vin Diesel and Joaquin Phoenix all earned between earned $20-30 million.
Jon Cryer still has fond memories of working alongside Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men. "In the early years, the life with Charlie Sheen was great," Cryer, 57, told Entertainment Tonight. "We got along great, he had been sober for two years when we started the show, and it was really important to him to keep sober.
| Name | Program | Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Jon Cryer | Two and a Half Men | $620,000 |
| Julia Louis-Dreyfus | Seinfeld | $600,000 |
| Jason Alexander | ||
| Michael Richards |
Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer
Cryer went on for four more seasons alongside replacement Ashton Kutcher, but Sheen and Cryer have similar amounts of money off of reruns, as each has taken in over $20 million since the show wrapped.
Culkin doesn't make royalties from Home Alone.
“If you're doing a show and you're not an executive producer and own it, then you get residuals which can amount to checks from $2 to $2,000.”
For 4 seasons or 4 years in TV age. Which makes him 625K$ a year or around 52K a month.
