A while ago, reports were circulating that five of the principal actors on Game of Thrones — Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Nicolaj Coster-Waldau, Kit Harington, and Emilia Clarke — were set to receive pay raises to the tune of $2.56 million per episode for the final two seasons of the show. But as series mainstay Liam Cunningham (Davos) told Independent, that number is pure fantasy. “What?! You think the Game of Thrones works like a pensionable job in the civil service? Where the last men standing get the most money? It doesn’t! Every time I see a new figure thrown around, €1m per episode, €2m per episode, I burst me ribs laughing. My bank manager is having a good laugh at it, too.”
"[Game of Thrones] is not filmed in the States; if you had an American deal, there would be a lot more ‘residuals’ so you can’t compare shows that are filmed here to shows that are filmed over there. And if what they are saying is true – that the top 10 stars are getting €2m per episode – then that means it’s costing €20m an episode before you even buy one costume or write one word of script. That’s more than Star Wars!"
Technically we were only talking the top five stars, but still: good point.
Entertainment Weekly’s James Hibberd, who has as direct a line to the production as any journalist living, also refuted the reports shortly after they came out.
Seems…impossible! No. Tabloid source. Also says they just signed -- they actually signed last summer for final 2 seasons
— James Hibberd (@JamesHibberd) April 25, 2017
The original report had it that the $2.56 million paydays involved “complex bonus clauses based on shared percentages of syndication payments received from more than 170 countries in which the series is broadcast.” Whatever the stars are getting paid for the final two years of the show, we can rest assured that they’ll be able to support themselves.