Staggering amount Friends stars still make thirty-two years after show first premiered
It's been over two decades since Rachel Green got off the plane and stayed in New York with Ross, and the Friends cast are still making a lot of money from the series.
Premiering in 1994, Friends took Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer and Lisa Kudrow from unknown actors and turned them into household names.
The popular series spanned 10 seasons and ended with each member of the main cast earning a hefty $1 million (£750,575) per episode during Seasons 9 and 10, which works out to roughly $2 million in today's money, inflation-adjusted.
Multiply that by the 41 episodes in seasons 9 and 10, and each actor finished the series with a net worth in the tens of millions.
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Which is a hell of a lot more than the $22,500 per episode during Season 1.
It's enough to retire and live a comfortable life, especially when you consider the amount of money each cast member made in residuals.
How much do the cast of Friends make in residuals?
According to numerous reports, the five main cast members who are still alive, following Matthew Perry's tragic death, are continuing to cash in on around $20 million a year in residuals.
Which, again, is enough money to never work again.
Speaking to The Times, Kudrow explained why the show is still so loved, but also why the cast members would regularly clash with writers on set.
She said: “After Matthew died, I watched the show again,” the 62-year-old shared. “Before, I only saw what I did wrong or could have done better. But for the first time, I truly appreciated just how great it was.”
She continued, “Because there was a genius at work. And whatever any of us do in the future, we will never experience something like that again.”
Although the six co-stars were all friends in real life, there was still an intense pressure to perform while recording, especially in front of a live audience where one mistake could be picked up.
“Don’t forget we were recording in front of a live audience of 400, and if you messed up one of these writers’ lines or it didn’t get the perfect response, they could be like, ‘Can’t the b***h f*****g read? She’s not even trying. She f****d up my line,'” Kudrow explained.
“And we know that back in the room, the guys would be up late discussing their sexual fantasies about Jennifer and Courteney,” she added. “It was intense.”
Although she had some strong words about the writers, the 62-year-old later admitted that she would never say anything bad about the show, because the sitcom is 'still incredible work' all these years later.
Considering she's able to earn so much from the show and the sheer number of people who still tune in to watch their comfort series, it's perhaps no surprise she's such a fan.
Topics: Friends, Lisa Kudrow, TV, Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston
James Moorhouse