Reasons for Zendaya’s reported ‘Euphoria’ pay increase

After recently re-negotiating her contract, Zendaya is set to earn $1 million per episode of the HBO hit series ‘Euphoria’.

Possible reasons for Zendaya’s pay increase

After picking up two Emmy Awards for her role in the high school drama series ‘Euphoria’, Zendaya had huge leverage for re-negotiation as the show looks to its third season.

Plus, when the actress stepped up to executive producer on the show for its second season, she broke the record as the youngest person ever to win an Emmy nomination as a producer at the age of 25.

Not to mention she’s part of two major Hollywood franchises in Marvel’s ‘Spider man’ and Dune, which likely helped her in talks.

The ‘Euphoria’ ensemble

The actress is a prominent member of an ensemble cast, as well as narrator of the HBO show — and it is widely known that she is the highest-paid. The ink is still drying on the new deal, as the actress reportedly “just closed a big re-negotiation”.

The splashy new deal comes as no surprise to Zendaya’s co-stars, as Sydney Sweeney mentioned in July 2022. Sweeney is among the ensemble cast, and she discussed in an interview how there was a huge gap between actors in the cast of many television shows.

“They don’t pay actors like they used to, and with streamers, you no longer get residuals,” the ‘Euphoria’ actress said.

Residuals allow actors a long-term income stream for their past work.

“The established stars still get paid,” Sweeny revealed, and elaborated that a significant portion of her income went to paying for services.

“I have to give five percent to my lawyer, 10 percent to my agents, three percent or something like that to my business manager,” she explained. “I have to pay my publicist every month, and that’s more than my mortgage.”

The million-dollar ranks

The 26-year-old star joins the ranks of the iconic sitcom ‘Friends’ cast, of which there was a million-dollar mark in the contracts for the last three seasons.

Hold the amazement however, and factor in inflation. Though it is still an impressive number, it is significantly less than the ‘Friends’ raked in after calculating the inflation difference. According to Belloni, shows and networks are not adjusting actors’ salaries for inflation, thereby deeming “$850,000 is the new $1 million”.

Other actors to reach the high mark are Michael Keaton for his role in ‘Dopesick’ and Elisabeth Moss in ‘Shining Girls’, Jason Sudeikis for ‘Ted Lasso’, Chris Pratt in ‘the Terminal List’, John Krasinski for ‘Jack Ryan’, and Harrison Ford, Kevin Costner, and Helen Mirren for their work in ‘Yellowstone’.