Full House's Jodie Sweetin reveals her insane royalties as Friends cast get $20 million a year
Jodie Sweetin was catapulted to fame while other kids were still in kindergarten, but 39 years since she first delighted viewers as middle child Stephanie Tanner on Full House, is she still raking it in?
She's fessed up to how much she makes nowadays from the show after Lisa Kudrow confirmed the Friends cast are still receiving $20 million annually in residuals.
When asked how the cast bag a huge sum by The Times last month, Kudrow laughed: “Because Phoebe Buffay was so great?”
Even when the show was in its heyday, it's believed the cast were earning $1 million per episode.
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Many actors benefit from residual pay, which are payments made to the cast and crew when a film or TV show is reused on cable re-runs, streaming platforms or even DVD sales.
Unions such as SAG-AFTRA and the WGA determine this wage, with the long-term success of a product usually a good indication.
Explaining how it works, Joshua Edwards, a partner and entertainment lawyer at Fox Rothschild LLP, told the LA Times: "If a title is something that has a long lifetime and is continually licensed over and over again to different platforms, then that actor or writer should continue to benefit.”
Sweetin has unfortunately not benefited greatly from residual pay, after she revealed in a recent podcast that she was recently handed a $0.01 residual check following eight seasons on Full House.
While the actor was praised for her role as Stephanie Tanner from 1987 to 1995 and once more from 2016 to 2020 in a reboot of the series, the pay just hasn't been there.
Speaking on the McBride Rewind podcast, Sweetin said: "I got a one-cent check the other day. There’s no syndication anymore because it’s all in streaming. Who gets paid for that? Nobody gets paid for that."
The 44-year-old acknowledged that she received higher residual fees when she was younger, but that has since dried up due to Full House rarely seeing TV showings these days.
Sweetin added: "Sure, [in] my 20s, there would be money, but not reliable. You don’t know how much it’s going to be or how often they’re going to run the show.
"So, sometimes you’re like, ‘Oh, cool. That was nice.’ And then sometimes you’re like, ‘All right, well, there’s a nice dinner out.'”
Due to this, Sweetin said she doesn't 'live some extravagant life', as she added: "I drive my 2023 used Hyundai Sonata that I love. I rent my house. I have credit cards that are maxed out. I live a normal life.
"And yeah, there are moments when you’re like, ‘This is going well.’ And there are times when you’re like, ‘I need a day job.'”
Back in 2024, Sweetin said that her paychecks from appearing on Full House went towards her first car and paying for college.
Though she did tell People that, despite paying for it herself, her parents told her 'it's our car, and you can fully have it when you're of legal age'.
Then in 2017, details of Sweetin's finances became public knowledge amid her divorce from actor Morty Coyle.
Court filings revealed that at the time she was making around $40,000 a month, which works out around $480,000 a year.
Topics: Friends, Film and TV
Callum Jones