Game of Thrones is a show with a big budget since you’ve got crazy costumes, props, sets, dragons, direwolves and what not. Plus with the amount of money the show makes based on it’s massive popularity, it’s natural that the actors, who are some of the most popular people on the planet, get paid a handsome check. Since you’re now obviously wondering how much these actors of the biggest show on earth make, worry not, for Variety has got you covered. They’ve just released a list of the highest paid actors on television, and some of the Game of Thrones stars have made it onto the top.
Five Game of Thrones actors are tied in the third place, those being: Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen), Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Kit Harrington (Jon Snow), and Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister). Each of these stars make $500,000 per episode.
Though this is quite low compared to how much actors of other tv shows make. When it comes to the comedy list, Variety notes that the main cast of the Big Bang Theory make $900,000 per episode while Dwayne Johnson, who stars on HBO’s Ballers makes $650,000 per half hour episode of the show. But Game of Thrones can be given consideration over the fact that there are a lot more actors on this epic fantasy show than others, plus the rest of the aspects that make the show such a huge success should also be taken into account.
We’re all well aware of the fact that the Direwolves cost a massive amount to the show which is why we haven’t seen much of them in the later seasons. Not only that, they have to create Dany’s dragons who are a very important part of the show, which must cost them quite a bit with the CGI and sorts. So it’s not that strange for the actors on Game of Thrones to be paid less than what the major stars of other popular shows do.