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Martha Stewart Reveals How She Made $65 Million in Royalties

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Martha Stewart once baked up the perfect recipe for cash.

The business mogul recently shared the ins and outs of her financial journey—including how her deal with Kmart in the 1990s, which saw the launch of her brand Martha Stewart Everyday—set her up for a major payout.

“Kmart was my first big money, and it was a lot of money,” she said during her appearance on the MasterClass podcast Other People’s Business Oct. 6. “I was clearing $65 million a year in royalties. Because we were selling close to $2 billion worth of merchandise.”

As she so adeptly put it, “That’s a lot of money. And that was funding my whole development of my magazine and the whole business. I mean, that was an amazing thing. So, see how nice that is?”

Even prior to her Kmart deal, Stewart was turning a steady profit—though with much more labor involved.

“Before that I was grossing a little bit more than a million dollars in a catering business,” she said, “at which I was killing myself physically. And I had a big staff to pay and everything else. But that was still a big beginner business.”

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But while the Kmart deal’s royalties brought the 85-year-old a long way almost 30 years ago, the chef—who spent five months in jail starting in Oct. 2025 after being convicted of conspiracy, making false statements and obstruction of justice related to the sale of stocks—was candid about the way business has changed today.

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“It’s harder to do that nowadays because first of all, the royalties aren’t the same,” she explained. “Now it’s three percent of wholesale and, you know, it gets lesser and lesser. Companies are paying such small royalties.”

The age of social media, too, is impacting revenue. As she noted, influencers often get paid in goods—herself included.

“I get asked to go to a fashion show and I then get $40,000 worth of clothes,” Stewart explained. “That’s a lot of money, $40,000, to dress me to go to the fashion show. Just to show up.”

Though, she noted, “I love that gig.”

But Stewart isn’t the only celebrity who’s learned how to turn a steady profit. For a closer look at celebrity paychecks, read on.

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Steve-OJackass 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.”

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Jennifer LawrenceOscar 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.”

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Jonah HillLess 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.”

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Jenna JohnsonWhile 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.

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Lisa KudrowThe actress seemingly confirmed that the Friends cast—including Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox,David Schwimmer and 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.”

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Joe GiudiceTo hear Joe Giudice tell it, his and ex-wife Teresa Giudice‘s salary for season one of The Real Housewives of New Jersey was 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.”

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Oprah WinfreyOprah 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.”

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Jennifer LopezWhen 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 BrodyAdrien 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.

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Pete Davidson“Do you guys know what they pay us?” Pete Davidson cracked 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.)

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Kenan ThompsonWhile 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.”

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Lauren GrahamIt 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.”

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Tommy DorfmanFeeling 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.”

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Dax ShepardWithout 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.

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George Clooney“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.

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Christian BaleFor 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.”

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Emilia ClarkeNo, the Game of Thrones cast didn’t get paid $300,000 per episode, according to Emilia Clarke.“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.

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Jon HederHis 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.”

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Djimon HounsouDjimon 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.”

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Rebel WilsonRebel 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.”

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Ellen PompeoIn 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.”

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Jamie Lee CurtisJamie Lee Curtis recalled getting paid $2,000 a week—so $8,000 in total—for 1978’s Halloween, her movie debut. “I mean,” she told Rotten Tomatoes in 2018, “nobody got paid, anything.”Yet while the scream queen earned four figures, director John Carpenter’s friend Nick Castle felt like a king making $25 per day to share the role of Michael Myers. (It’s Anthony Moran whose face you see when the killer’s mask comes off for a freaky second, and editor Tommy Lee Wallace also logged screentime as Michael.)“That was a lot at the time!” Castle, who attended film school at USC with Carpenter, told Vanity Fairin 2018. “You have to remember: My interest in doing the film was being on set, so I could demystify the experience of filmmaking and directing. I expected to hang around the set for no money. But hey, $25 per day, and all I had to do was wear a rubber mask.”

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Taraji P. HensonTaraji P. Hensonearned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for 2008’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but years later she was still fired up by the $150,000 she accepted to be in the movie—after producers rejected the $500,000 quote she brought to the table.As for the film’s leads Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, “You don’t hear a lot of $20 million quotes anymore, but at this time that was happening,” Henson said on the Ladies First With Laura Brown podcast in 2021. “And rightfully so—I’m not saying they shouldn’t have paid Cate and Brad what they deserved.”But, she continued, “I’m bringing a certain amount to the seat too and I felt like what I was asking at that time in my career was fair, was fair to the ticket sales that I would contribute to this big film. Wouldn’t do it.” Henson was “gutted” when they offered $100,000, she recalled. “When it was all said and done I got $150,000, but I had to swallow my pride, baby.”Breaking it down, “I know people go, ‘$150,000, that’s a lot of money!’” Henson acknowledged. “I don’t ever want people to think that I’m ungrateful because that is not me.” But, she calculated, “Uncle Sam is going to take 50 percent of that, so now you’re left with, what? $75,000. Now before Uncle Sam takes the money, I have to pay my team before taxes, 30 percent. So once Uncle Sam takes his 75, then I got another 30 that’s coming off of that 75, so I may have made $40,000?”

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Cate BlanchettWhile Blanchett has made plenty of money over the years, it didn’t all come from playing royal elf Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings franchise, though it grossed $2.9 billion at the worldwide box office.“Are you kidding me? No,” she retorted on Watch What Happens Live in August 2024 when Andy Cohen guessed LOTR was her biggest paycheck. “No one got paid anything to do that movie…I mean, I basically got free sandwiches, and I got to keep my ears.”

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Orlando BloomThey weren’t paid a precious amount, that is. Orlando Bloom, who played elven warrior Legolas, shared on The Howard Stern Show in 2023 that he made $175,000 for the whole trilogy.Hopefully he also got to keep his ears.

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