• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
E.T. child actor reveals shocking amount he made from film as it is added to Netflix

Home> Entertainment> Netflix

Published 14:03 4 Jul 2025 GMT+1

E.T. child actor reveals shocking amount he made from film as it is added to Netflix

The star of E.T. has revealed how much he made from the film

Michael Slavin

Michael Slavin

One of the child actors who starred in E.T. revealed how much he made from the Steven Spielberg classic and it will probably shock you.

This comes as the 1982 film about an extra-terrestial who comes to Earth and is taken in by a group of kids is added to Netflix in the UK.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial joins a number of iconic films to have been added just since the start of the month, with Cape Fear, Heat, and Minority Report all now on the world’s biggest streaming service.

If you ask people who were left in tears by the sci-fi film, however, this is by far the most important film to have been added.

Advert

Henry Thomas starred in the film as Elliot alongside a young Drew Barrymore as Gertie, with the classic film earning a score of 99 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes and winning four Oscars off nine nominations.

E.T. has been added to Netflix (Universal)
E.T. has been added to Netflix (Universal)

Thomas has gone on to have carve quite a successful career for himself, appearing in Scorsese’s Gangs of New York alongside a star studded cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, and Stephen Graham.

Add to that the Netflix horror Fall of the House of Usher that came out in 2023, and he has done incredibly well for himself.

To this day though, he is still best known for his starring role in E.T. as the child Elliott who befriends the alien.

Advert

Despite this, Thomas actually made an insanely low amount of money from the film, stating in an interview that he actually made the minimum wage he possibly could.

Off a budget of $10.5 million, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial made $797.3 million at the box office – the equivalent today of a film making $2.6 billion.

This would put it behind just Avatar and Avengers: Endgame in the all time list. Thomas said to The Mirror in 2012: “Despite popular belief I didn’t make much money from the movie. I was 10 years old, remember. I basically got the minimum wage.

“Universal and Spielberg did really well. The minions had to go back to work. I do getresidual cheques, though, which is great. And I got it better than E.T... he’s off in a box somewhere.”

Thomas reunited with E.T. nearly four decades on for an advert (XFinity)
Thomas reunited with E.T. nearly four decades on for an advert (XFinity)

Whilst he has not disclosed the exact amount, even by today's standards he wouldn't have made much.

Advert

The daily SAG-AFTRA rate for minors is $1,000 a day for films budgeted over $2 million. Filming on E.T. took roughly three months, meaning that the nearly billion dollar film would likely have paid him roughly $90,000 for his troubles if filmed today.

Reports from the early 80s suggest that daily rates went up to $315 a day for actors following a strike in 1980, however.

If this was the case for Thomas, then he would have made just under $10,000.

In the same interview with The Mirror, he said there were times he'd felt regret at starring in the film, stating that it made it near-impossible for him to live a normal life for a while.

He added: “I was a shy kid, and being approached by adults all the time just freaked me out.

Advert

“I was like a circus freak. But the only time I had to deal with it was when I left the house. So I stopped leaving the house. I became an 11-year-old hermit.”

He separately stated in an interview with The Guardian that his family were not ‘well equipped’ for the fame the movie brought.

E.T. The Extra Terrestrial is available to watch on Netflix now.

Featured Image Credit: Universal Pictures

Topics: Netflix, Drew Barrymore, TV and Film, Film, Money, Nostalgia

Michael Slavin
Michael Slavin

Michael Slavin is LADbible's dedicated specialist Film and TV writer. Following his completion of a Masters in International Journalism at Salford University, he began working for the Warrington Guardian as a reporter. Throughout this he did freelance work about Entertainment for publications such as DiscussingFilm, where he was the Film and TV editor. Now, he is LAD's go to voice on all things Netflix, True Crime, and UK TV, as well as interviewing huge global stars such as Jake Gyllenhaal, Daisy Ridley, and Ben Stiller.

X

@michaelslavin98

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

2 hours ago
14 hours ago
15 hours ago
  • 2 hours ago

    Lewis Capaldi opens up about ‘convulsing’ backstage in harrowing experience that led to him disappearing for two years

    Singer Lewis Capaldi opened up on an episode he suffered backstage in 2023

    Entertainment
  • 14 hours ago

    What happened to Michael Mosley when he died in Greece as his final TV show airs

    The show aired its first episode last night, the final he filmed before his death

    Entertainment
  • 15 hours ago

    Shocking Paddy Power advert was banned after Oscar Pistorius murder trial joke

    More than 130,000 people signed a petition demanding for the ad to be taken down

    Entertainment
  • 15 hours ago

    Alarming amount of money Jordan Belfort really made from penny stocks as Wolf of Wall Street added to Netflix

    He made a huge amount from penny stocks over the years

    Entertainment
  • Alarming amount of money Jordan Belfort really made from penny stocks as Wolf of Wall Street added to Netflix
  • Amazing way Christopher Nolan created Oppenheimer atomic bomb without CGI as film added to Netflix
  • James Franco co-star from film on Netflix made feelings known about working with the controversial actor
  • 'Best film of the year' with a 94% Rotten Tomatoes score added to Netflix