Highlights
- The cast of Friends still earns royalties from the show, making around $20 million per year due to its continued popularity and viewership.
- Guest-starring on Friends provided a career boost for many actors, opening doors for lucrative opportunities in the industry.
- Some guest stars, like Vincent Ventresca who played Fun Bobby, still receive royalty checks from the show, earning approximately $2,000 per year.
When Friends first aired, no one could have predicted how huge of a hit it would become. But over the years (and the seasons), the show generated tons of hype, especially when it added notable guest stars to the cast list.
Appearing on Friends was an important career moment for everyone from Cole Sprouse when he played Ben (and crushed on Jennifer Aniston) to Reese Witherspoon and countless others. Not everyone earned a ton of money from the opportunity, though. Fortunately for some, the guest star royalties weren't half bad.
The Friends Cast Still Earns Royalties From The Show Today
Even though their earnings started out lower, the Friends cast began earning more money with every passing season. Given how popular Friends remains today, the royalties are still flooding in, earning each cast member around $20 million per year.
This was the result, of course, of years of hard work, a bit of negotiating on the part of the six-member core cast, and the viewership's penchant for reliving literally every episode multiple times over the years.
They have earned it, especially because the fame spotlight on them hasn't always been rosy. From Jennifer Aniston's relationship drama to Matthew Perry coming under fire for his memoir, being super-famous has its drawbacks.
Long after the show ended, the cast is still earning impressive royalties and riding on the waves of fame. Friends was a jumping-off point for most of the actors and helped pave the way for lucrative careers for each of them.
For the guest stars who appeared alongside the famous cast, however, there may not be millions in residuals waiting in their mailboxes each month.
Guest-Starring On Friends Was A Career Boost For Most Actors
Friends was notable for its long list of famous guest stars, including Jennifer Aniston's then-husband Brad Pitt, which turned out to be an enjoyable experience for all. Though Brad, at the time, was already a big name in Hollywood, not every guest star was someone uber-famous.
Case in point? Vincent Ventresca. When he played "Fun Bobby," Vincent had appeared on a few shows, but none so beloved today as Friends.
His career in TV started with a single-episode appearance on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in 1991, but it took until at least 1996 for him to gain more widespread recognition (on the series Boston Common).
So when he received the call for Friends, why would Vincent turn down the opportunity?
In a chat with The Guardian, Vincent admitted he was feeling cocky after completing a pilot for Fox. He said of receiving word that Friends was auditioning for small parts, "I thought I was the coolest person in the world... But something inside me told me, just do it."
During his first appearance as Fun Bobby, Vincent said the "energy was good." By his return for the second iteration of Fun Bobby, "it was like a circus" because of how popular the show was.
Fortunately for Ventresca, that meant long-term pay for his small part.
How Much Did Friends Pay Its Guest Stars?
To date, there doesn't seem to be a standard for how much Friends guest stars got paid. In fact, it's rumored that some didn't; Brad Pitt was said to have 'phoned in' his appearance because he didn't get a paycheck for the gig.
Other stars like Reese Witherspoon never spoke about their salaries, while Bruce Willis reportedly donated his salary to charity—after being forced into taking the gig after losing a bet to Matthew Perry.
However, Charlie Sheen reportedly earned $200,000 for his appearance on Friends in 1996, a role that lasted a single episode (he played Ryan in "The One with the Chicken Pox").
As for lesser celebrity guest stars, the up-front pay might not have been great, but the long-term royalties were a perk.
Fun Bobby Still Receives Royalty Checks From Friends
The details of the guest stars' earnings have never been fully revealed, but some of the actors themselves spilled the beans, and Vincent was one of them. He is clearly not the richest cast member from Friends, and he only appeared in two episodes, but "Fun Bobby" still receives some cash from the show.
It could be that each guest star negotiates a different deal, especially when it comes to big names like Sean Penn or Jean-Claude Van Damme. Even though Jean-Claude was a noteworthy guest star, he was not fun to deal with on set, so probably wasn't given a long-term deal.
As for Fun Bobby, AKA Vincent Ventresca, he was invited back for a second episode after playing Rachel Green's boyfriend one time.
Vincent told The Guardian that the main cast "must be really rich," because in 2019, he was still receiving royalty checks from Friends. According to Ventresca, his royalties amount to about $2,000 per year, an apparent average over the years since his appearance on episodes "The One with the Monkey" (1994) and "The One with Russ" (1996).
For anyone lucky enough to have gotten a gig on Friends in its heyday, those royalty checks might be small, but they likely won't stop coming.
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