How Much Money Do Game Of Thrones Actresses Sophie Turner, Emilia Clarke, And Lena Headey Make Per Episode? How Much Money Is The Game Of Thrones Cast Paid?
How Much Money Do Game Of Thrones Actresses Emilia Clarke, Sophie Turner, And Lena Headey Make Per Episode? How Much Money Is The Game Of Thrones Cast Paid?
Game of Thrones is a massive show with a big budget, but how much of that budget goes to the cast? An amount fit for a king, it turns out!
Game of Thrones divides its cast-members into a three-tiered system, with the members of tier one receiving the highest salaries.
Tier 1
So who is lucky enough to be in the top group? Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen), Kit Harington (Jon Snow), and the whole Lannister clan: Lena Headey (Cersei), Peter Dinklage (Tyrion), and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime). After receiving a hefty raise during salary negotiations after Season 4, these five stars are each expected to rake in $300,000 per episode next season. Since there are ten episodes in a season, each of these actors will end their season having made a cool $3,000,000… assuming they can survive through all 10 episodes.
The Rest
The numbers are a little more hazy on the rest of the cast. The second rung on the ladder, which includes such actors as Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark), Maisie Williams (Arya Stark), and Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell), among others, are said to have received large raises in recent negotiations as well. While previous estimates put at least the younger members of this group in the $55,000 per episode range ($550,000 per season), we wouldn’t be shocked to learn if they’ve all been bumped up to six figures an episode given the show’s mammoth popularity.
They say the Lannisters always pay their debts, and now we know how they can afford to!
Beautiful Game Of Thrones British Actress Sophie Turner Modeling For The Cover Of The Edit (Net-A-Porter Magazine) Modeling As One Of The Highest Paid Actresses In The World.
Above: Beautiful Game Of Thrones British Actress Sophie Turner Modeling For The Cover Of The Edit (Net-A-Porter Magazine) Modeling As One Of The Highest Paid Actresses In The World.
Game of Thrones Cast Salaries
Game of Thrones biggest stars – see on this page – are rumoured to be paid $300,000 an episode (or $2.1 million per season) after negotiating new contracts for a seventh season. They united to negotiate a $1 million an episode deal (about $7 million for the season) for the 10th and final season. The contracts do not guarantee that the characters of the actors will stay alive in the series.
As expected, Tier A, aka the highest-paid level, includes the show’s lead actors, including Emilia Clarke (who plays Daenerys Targaryen), Kit Harington (Jon Snow), and Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister). Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (aka Jaime Lannister) and Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister) are also included in this tier.
Though the exact number of their renegotiated salary was not revealed at the time, Deadline reported that all of the Tier A actors are currently paid close to $300,000 an episode. For Dinklage and Headey, who were making $160,000 per episode in Season 4, the pay bump marked a nearly 100% raise. Since there are ten episodes per a season, the actors in this tier (at least those who weren’t temporarily killed off) will end each season having made a cool $3,000,000.
Again, these deals were struck ahead of Season 5.
Update 6/22/16: After the show earned high ratings and critical acclaim in its recent seasons, the Game of Thrones stars are again asking for a significant pay bumps. According to Deadline, the above mentioned Tier A actors will now all be paid north of $500,000 an episode for Season 7, which has been officially picked up, and Season 8, which is widely expected. While the pay raise helps secure the key cast for the series’ final run, it reportedly doesn’t guarantee that all five characters will survive til the show’s last episodes. Meanwhile, speculation is that both Season 7 and Season 8 will be shorter than previous seasons, possibly seven episodes for the former and six episodes for the latter.
Per THR, the lower-salaried “B” tier includes co-stars Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell), Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark), Maisie Williams (Arya Stark), and several others who remain unnamed. Of the names including in this tier, Williams is probably the most surprising, as her character Arya is a fan favorite and widely considered a staple of the show. However, some reports suggest that her younger age could have been a factor in knocking her down to the second tier.
Though their salaries were not revealed at the time, THR reports that all of Tier B also scored raises in the 2014 negotiations (albeit smaller ones than those in Tier A). In return, these actors also extended their contracts through Season 7.
What about the rest of the cast not included in Tier or Tier B? Per THR, there is reportedly also a third tier of regular actors who received much smaller pay increases during negotiations.
Game of Thrones is one of HBO’s most valuable properties and the push to stretch a seventh year into the cast’s contracts reflects the long-term value the premium cable operation places on the show.
The series commands a weekly audience of more than seven million viewers in the US, and has been sold extensively around the world. Unusually, and valuably, it has increased its audience every season since its debut in 2011.
The new contracts, however, do not guarantee that the actors who have signed them will live to see a seventh season.
Game of Thrones is notorious for killing off its main characters.
More than 20 characters have been killed off in the series since it launched.
Mother of dollars: Emilia Clarke, who plays Daenerys Targaryen, is in the top tier.
No wonder he repays his debts: The show’s lead actors, such as Peter Dinklage, now earn roughly $US300,000 per episode.
EXCLUSIVE: HBO’s fantasy drama Game Of Thrones has been a rare combination of a ratings smash, cultural phenomenon and a critical darling, winning the Best Drama Series Emmy last year. I hear the stars of the series are sharing in its success with major new salary bumps for what is rumored to be Game Of Thrones’ final chapter.
I hear mainstays Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister), Kit Harington (Jon Snow), Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister) will all be paid north of $500,000 an episode for Season 7, which has been officially picked up, and Season 8, which is widely expected. HBO has not specified the size of the order for Season 7, but speculation has been that both Season 7 and Season 8 would be shorter than the standard for the show 10 episodes, possibly seven episodes (Season 7) and six episodes (Season 8).
‘Game of Thrones’ Stars Score Hefty Pay Raises for Season 8
But that doesn’t mean they’ll all survive the HBO fantasy drama.
HBO is sharing the Game of Thrones wealth with the cast.
The stars of the Emmy-winning drama are in line to receive hefty salary raises for the likely eighth and potentially final season of the fantasy drama based on the books by George R.R. Martin, sources confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.
Due to score sizable pay bumps are leads Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister), Kit Harington (Jon Snow), Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister). They’ll each earn upward of $500,000 per episode of season seven, which has already been announced, and in the likely eighth season (which is all but a formality). The raises for season seven come as part of an option HBO had with the cast as part of their last deal, signed in October 2014, that saw the five stars each become among the highest-paid actors on cable TV. The premium cable network had the option on season seven, and that has now been exercised and packaged with season eight. While the five stars are locked in, it does not guarantee that their characters will survive through what is expected to be the end of the series. HBO declined comment on the salary bumps.
Season eight has not yet been announced but is wildly expected as the drama, from showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss is, in their words, “approaching the finish line.”
The duo told THR ahead of the current sixth season — which wraps Sunday — that they are “writing the final act” and are “looking at somewhere between 70 and 75 hours before the credits roll for the last time.”
Also unclear are just how many episodes seasons seven and eight will consist of. When season six wraps this weekend, Thrones will have aired 60 episodes, meaning the remaining two seasons could be short-orders to match the 75 hours producers have envisioned.
The contracts of the remaining stars, including Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark), Maisie Williams (Arya Stark) and others, has not yet been completed. Their last deal, in October 2014, also saw them net hefty raises with an option for season seven.
Game of Thrones ranks as HBO’s most-watched series ever and is the premium outlet’s longest-running show currently on the air.
“The Winds of Winter” Finally Arrives
But not in the way book readers were hoping, unfortunately. The season six finale borrows its title from the sixth novel in George R.R. Martin’s series — a book that remains unpublished. As such, Thrones veered away from the books during season six, and in many cases even revealed plot points ahead of Martin’s pace. (Here’s looking at you, Hodor.) The words “Winds of Winter” carry significant weight for fans of both Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire, serving as both a powerful sign of things to come, and a painful reminder of the book’s continued delay.
The Future Is Unknown
The wait between seasons can be brutal. Though it seems a faraway memory now, Jon Snow’s death in the season five finale slammed into fans like a ton of ice bricks dropping from the top of the Wall. Will season six end on a similarly painful and even maddening cliffhanger? That’s unknown for now. What is known, however, is the fact that Thrones is closer than ever to its conclusion. Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss have expressed their intent to end the series soon, with some debate about the exact amount of episodes remaining.
“In the beginning, we hoped that if the show worked, we’d get seven seasons to tell the tale. Seven kingdoms, seven gods, seven books — seven felt like a lucky number,” Benioff and Weiss told THR ahead of season six. “The actual messiness of storytelling might not be quite that numerologically elegant, but we’re looking at somewhere between 70 and 75 hours before the credits roll for the last time.”
Emilia Clarke
Emilia Isabelle Euphemia Rose Clarke[1][2] (born 23 October 1986[3]) is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Daenerys Targaryen in the HBO series Game of Thrones, for which she received two Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2013 and 2015. Clarke made her Broadway debut in a production of Breakfast at Tiffany’s as Holly Golightly in March 2013. In 2015, she starred as Sarah Connor in the film Terminator Genisys. She was named Esquire’s Sexiest Woman Alive in 2015.
Sophie Turner (born 21 February 1996) is an English actress. Turner made her professional acting debut as Sansa Stark on the HBO fantasy television series Game of Thrones (2011-present), which brought her international recognition and critical praise. For her performance, she has received four nominations for Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, as well as a Young Artist Award nomination for Best Supporting Young Actress in a TV Series.
Turner has also starred in the television film The Thirteenth Tale (2013) and she made her feature film debut in Another Me (2013). She has also starred in the action comedy Barely Lethal (2015) and played Jean Grey in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016).
Watch a Young Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams Own Their Game of Thrones Auditions
Remember when Sansa and Arya looked like this?
Season six of Game of Thrones might be over, but you can relive the early glory of the Starks and the North with this very excellent audition tape of Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams trying out for the roles of Sansa and Arya Stark, respectively, nearly six years ago.
The video clip splices two different audition clips of the actresses from 2010, where each reads opposite parts from the same scene (presumably with a line reader for the video); however, with the editing, it appears that the two girls are speaking to one another, despite the fact that the footage was taken separately.
Game Of Thrones Actress Lena Headey
Lena Headey (born 3 October 1973) is a British actress.
After being scouted at age 17, Headey worked steadily as an actress in small and supporting roles in films throughout the 1990s, before finding fame for her lead performances in big-budget films such as the fantasy film The Brothers Grimm (2005), the action film 300 (2007), portraying Gorgo, Queen of Sparta, and the adventure and biographical film The Red Baron (2008).
Headey is best known for portraying Queen Cersei Lannister in HBO’s hit fantasy series Game of Thrones since 2011, a performance that has earned her two consecutive Emmy award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She is also known for playing the titular character Sarah Connor on Fox’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and the villainous drug lord Madeline “Ma-Ma” Madrigal in Dredd.
Maisie Williams
Margaret Constance “Maisie” Williams[1] (born 15 April 1997) is an English actress. She made her professional acting debut as Arya Stark in the HBO fantasy television series Game of Thrones, for which she won the EWwy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama, the Portal Award for Best Supporting Actress – Television and Best Young Actor, and the Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor.
Williams has also had a recurring role in Doctor Who as Ashildr in 2015. In addition to television, she made her feature film debut in the mystery The Falling, for which she won the London Film Critics’ Circle Award for Young Performer of the Year.
Natalie Dormer
Natalie Dormer (born 11 February 1982) is an English actress. She became known for her roles as Anne Boleyn on the Showtime series The Tudors (2007–10), as Margaery Tyrell on the HBO series Game of Thrones (2012–16), Irene Adler on the CBS series Elementary (2013–15), and as Cressida in the science-fiction adventure films The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014) and Part 2 (2015). She has been nominated for Best Performance at the Gemini Awards for her work in The Tudors. She has also been nominated for a Screen Actor’s Guild Award for her performance in Game of Thrones.
Lyanna Mormont
“From the moment she came in, she was on it: She was professional, and she was just brilliant,” actor Liam Cunningham says of the Lady of Bear Island.
Jon Snow’s mother isn’t the only important Lyanna in the North, and not even the only important Lyanna of “The Winds of Winter,” the final installment of Game of Thrones’ eventful sixth season.
Near the end of the episode, Lord Snow attempts to solidify the North behind his cause against the White Walkers, but his pleas fall on deaf ears. The tide only turns after a rousing speech from Lyanna Mormont, the Lady of Bear Island, no more than 10 years old and in command of no more than 62 soldiers — at least that’s the number she gives Jon back in “The Broken Man,” but no telling how the figure has adjusted in the wake of “Battle of the Bastards.”
“Your son was butchered at the Red Wedding, Lord Manderly, but you refused the call,” she says, the ice-cold toughness of a world-weary warrior in her young voice. “You swore allegiance to House Stark, Lord Glover, but in their hour of greatest need, you refused the call. And you, Lord Cerwyn, your father was skinned alive by Ramsay Bolton. Still you refused the call. But House Mormont remembers. The North remembers. We know no king but the King in the North whose name is Stark. I don’t care if he’s a bastard. Ned Stark’s blood runs through his veins. He’s my king from this day until his last day.”
From there, it’s a short leap before all those in attendance lift their arms in favor of Jon Snow, King in the North, the White Wolf of Winterfell — and on the other side of the television, more than a few million viewers were pumping their own fists in support of Lady Mormont, rallying an entire region of Westeros more effectively than Jon Snow himself. Indeed, while she’s not serving Frey pies, Lady Mormont delivers the show’s version of one of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books’ most iconic lines: “The North remembers.” Lord Manderly owns this line in the source material; on the show, not only do those words belong to Lady Mormont, she pairs them with an epic tongue-lashing toward Manderly and his fellow Northerners.
It’s not just the character on Game of Thrones and fans at home who were impressed with the ruler of Bear Islands, either. The cast and crew on hand for actress Bella Ramsey’s scenes were similarly impressed by the young star’s work.
“From the moment she came in, she was on it: She was professional, and she was just brilliant,” Liam Cunningham, who plays Davos Seaworth, told THR about working with Ramsey during the season. “There’s an old adage about how actors should never work with children or animals, but that’s B.S. When kids are as good as this young lady is, it’s a joy to play opposite. She was absolutely amazing. When somebody comes in and is that good, it makes your job that much easier.”
Mark Mylod, who directed Ramsey’s Game of Thrones debut in “The Broken Man,” remembers shooting the character’s first scene and immediately recognizing her instant hit status.
“She walked in for the casting reading, and we were knocked completely sideways. It was one of those moments where you go, ‘Oh my God, what a star.’ You could not wish to meet a more delightful young lady. It was a four-and-a-half-page scene where we first meet that character, with Jon, Sansa and Davos all meeting her on Bear Island. We had a rehearsal day, and I think we were shooting midweek. The cast agreed to come in on their day off to work with this young actor, Bella. She’s so young that she still works on child hours, so we had a limited amount of time with her. We knew we had to work fast, and she had so much dialogue, as you may remember from the scene. We all came in on a Saturday morning to the set, and everyone was having a jolly day, thinking we would be coaxing this shy young child through the scene. We all had kid gloves on for the day.
“After the first rehearsal, I remember thinking, ‘OK, this is going to be a very short rehearsal. She’s note perfect.’ The accent was awesome, her inflection and her professionalism. … We ended up rehearsing for only a half hour because she was so on it,” Mylod continued. “And of course, the rest of us felt deeply ashamed, because she knew every single word and every single inflection. We all went home feeling a bit deflated. (Laughs.) But also excited! Because the level of talent there is so ridiculous. She’s someone we’re going to look back on in 20 years, and she’s going to be ruling Hollywood. She’s just amazing.”
Game of Thrones season 6 in numbers: Episode costs, locations and Kit Harington’s salary
The world famous HBO fantasy series broken down in numbers.
Game of Thrones season six has been nothing short of exciting and revolutionary for the hit HBO fantasy series. But as it draws to a close this weekend (26 June), we’ll find ourselves a little lost on Sunday nights and finally forced to tackle the ironing pile.
The newest season of GoT could not possibly top the last, but this one has gone and done just that. We’ve witnessed Sansa Stark’s escape – threatening her husband Ramsay Bolton’s status as heir to the North – before she lets him be devoured by his own dogs at the sensational Battle of the Bastards.
Prior to that, Melisandre successfully resurrected Jon Snow after performing a bizarre ritual on him, and Daenerys Targaryen is brought to Vaes Dothrak to live out her days with the Dosh Khaleen having been captured by the khalasar. Jaime Lannister returned to King’s Landing with Myrcella Baratheon’s corpse and Bran Stark made good use out of his time travelling skills, amongst many other highlights throughout the season.
But what about the numbers from season six? Take a look at the interesting figures behind the globally successful franchise.
$10m: Was the cost of each episode of GoT – mounting to $100m for the season as a whole.
3: Was the amount of episodes it took for Jon Snow to be resurrected; he gasped his first breath at the end of episode three after being killed by several men of the Night’s Watch in the season five finale.
85,000: is the approximate number of people that have rated episode nine – the Battle of the Bastards – as the highest-rated TV episode of all time on IMDb.
$500,000: Is the estimated amount of money that several main characters in GoT will now receive per episode for season 7. These are: Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister), Kit Harington (Jon Snow), Lena Headey (Cersei Lanniester), Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister).
5: Characters predicted to live throughout season 7 and eight – which are the above-mentioned.
5: Ladies who are doing it for themselves, and giving GoT a good dose of girl power in contrast to previous seasons. These empowered females are: Sansa Stark, Daenerys Targaryen, Yara Greyjoy, Arya Stark and 10-year-old Lyanna Mormont.
6: Countries season 6 filmed on location. These were Spain, Northern Ireland, Croatia, Iceland and Canada.
3: Is the amount of appearances Daenerys’ dragons made.
900: Crew members were employed in Northern Ireland, and 400 in Spain
1: Battle was had, and that was the epic Battle of the Bastards.
Beautiful Game Of Thrones British Actress Sophie Turner Modeling For The Edit (Net-A-Porter Magazine) Fashion Editorials Modeling As One Of The Highest Paid Actresses In The World.
Above: Beautiful Game Of Thrones British Actress Sophie Turner Modeling For The Edit (Net-A-Porter Magazine) Fashion Editorials Modeling As One Of The Highest Paid Actresses In The World.
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