Most of Riverdale's cast turned into celebrities overnight, and while the tabloids fixate on
who is dating who in real life, it's hard not to wonder about the money.
These stars may not be the richest actors on TV, it isn't The Big Bang Theory, after
all, but they're certainly on their way.
It seems like Cole Sprouse would be a bit too young to sit on the Central Perk couch
with the cast of Friends, but then you've got to remember that the Disney Star has been
working nearly his entire life.
Not only was he cast as Ross' son on the NBC series, but he landed his first gig on the
sitcom Grace Under Fire in 1993.
He was born in 1992.
Is your jaw dropping yet?
By the time Sprouse and his twin brother Dylan signed on for The Suite Life of Zack & Cody,
the future Riverdale star was already a seasoned professional.
It's not surprising that he became one of Disney's highest paid stars, outearning even
Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato.
According to the New York Post, Sprouse and his brother raked in $20,000 per episode.
Sprouse has reportedly doubled his salary since his Disney days.
According to Variety, he pulls in $40,000 per episode as Jughead Jones.
Though his fame has brought him a monumental $8 million, making him the richest member
of the cast, he somehow manages to stay grounded.
Before Riverdale, Sprouse studied Geographical Information Systems and Satellite Imaging
at New York University and was working at a lab in Brooklyn.
"I thought education was really important.
I was a child actor, I mean I've been working since I was eight months old."
Kiwi actor KJ Apa was bracing for his breakthrough role when he landed the lead of Riverdale's
Archie Andrews.
Other than helping bolster Kleenex sales with A Dog's Purpose and cutting his TV mystery
teeth in the New Zealand drama The Cul De Sac, the star had minimal credits prior to
the CW series.
That changed very quickly after Riverdale's premiere.
Today, the actor lives the kind of luxurious life where, if Us Weekly is to be believed,
he's invited to house parties at Paris Hilton's house.
Must be nice.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Apa has racked up a $3 million net worth, which probably
has a lot to do with his work on Riverdale.
Variety reported that, like his co-star Cole Sprouse, Apa makes $40,000 per episode.
And he works really, really hard for that money.
"Keller trained you up good, huh Red?"
"Yeah, a little."
In fact, he works so hard that it might border on dangerous.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Apa totalled his car in the early hours of the morning
when he fell asleep behind the wheel during a 45-minute drive home after a 16-hour day
of filming.
Though he walked away without any serious injuries, the accident was severe enough to
prompt a SAG-AFTRA workplace investigation.
Lili Reinhart might have laughed off the assertion that she's making $300,000 per episode, but
she's still making significant cash with her role on Riverdale.
According to Variety, the actress makes $40,000 per episode like her co-stars, which works
out to be around $880,000 per season, and she's spending all of it very sensibly.
In October 2019, Reinhart spoke with The Daily Front Row in what was clearly a joint promotional
effort for her ambassadorship with American Express.
While touting the new, environmentally-friendly card, Reinhart claimed she hoards her credit
card points, and that her first credit card purchase was, quote, "probably something really
stupid, like McDonalds."
She also admitted to the occasional splurge, at least when her boyfriend Cole Sprouse eggs
her on.
She told the outlet:
"I also bought myself a Dior bracelet for my birthday, which was probably the most expensive
piece of clothing or jewelry I've ever bought for myself...I was with Cole, my boyfriend,
and he convinced me to do it.
He was like, 'It's your birthday.
You've worked hard.'
So I bought it for myself, and I don't feel guilty about it.
I don't do that kind of thing a lot.
I'm very stingy.
I save my money."
All that saving, plus a cushy side gig as an ambassador for a massive credit card company,
sounds like it's really paid off.
Camila Mendes had almost no professional experience when she landed the role of Veronica Lodge
on Riverdale.
According to W Magazine, prior to fame, the actress was a typical college student at New
York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
She graduated in 2016, a month after she started what she called, quote, "the most harrowing
audition process" for Riverdale.
She told the magazine:
"They were like, 'You're our top choice, but we want to open up a new search, and we want
someone that can compete with you.'
I lost sleep, I was crying every night because it felt like I was so close to something that
could be big, and like my life and career changing, but in the end it all worked out."
"Maybe that reckoning is now.
And maybe that reckoning is me."
The star went from doing little more than an Ikea commercial to raking in $40,000 per
episode, according to Variety.
For a very first credited gig, that ain't half bad.
Celebrity Net Worth clocks the star's total worth at an estimated $3 million.
Cheryl Blossom might come from a maple syrup fortune, but Madelaine Petsch isn't living
in a 1940s comic book.
When the star joined up with Riverdale, she barely had any acting credits.
Baby girl worked her way from absolutely nothing to a spot on one of the CW's most gripping
mystery dramas.
"Did you really think you could have a party without inviting moi?"
It's safe to say that today Pesche can put down the Aunt Jemima and splurge on some artisanal
stuff.
While it's unclear if she makes the same amount of cash as her fellow Riverdale High classmates,
Celebrity Net Worth estimates that the star has racked up an enormous $4 million net worth.
Despite this, it doesn't really look like she's spending her fortune on anything massive.
In a 2017 interview with Marie Claire, Petsch admitted that she and former roommate-slash-co-star
Lili Reinhart didn't go out very much.
"We lived together last year, but then I got a boyfriend so we have our own places now.
But a typical Friday night for Lili and I was staying at home watching The Nightmare
Before Christmas or Shrek, and eating food.
We generally just watch weird movies, eat food, and that's about it."
Since then, Petsch has moved into an apartment of her own in Vancouver, where she lives while
filming.
The star even chose the relatively thrifty option of Ikea furniture, which she assembled
herself.
"On Sunday, we went to Ikea and got everything that we needed, and then today, Monday, I
have spent the entire day building furniture."
Perhaps Camila Mendes got her a discount.
Ashleigh Murray isn't borrowing from mom
Ashleigh Murray was flat-out broke before landing a role on Riverdale.
The star was just a newcomer with only a few tiny credits to her name when she took on
the massive, storied character Josie McCoy, lead singer of Josie and the Pussycats.
In an interview with Collider, Murray admitted that before Riverdale, she was, quote, "$4,700
behind in rent," and had to wash her clothes in the bathroom sink because she didn't have
enough money to do laundry.
She was planning to take six months off from the industry in order to get back on her feet,
and Riverdale was her last audition.
"It was gonna be my last one.
I was like, 'Okay this is it.
I gotta go back to work.'
And the next day I was told they were pitting me for the role."
While it isn't clear exactly how much Murray makes from her role on Riverdale, it's probably
a pretty penny if her costars are raking in $40,000 per episode.
When Riverdale first premiered in 2017, Casey Cott was only worth $100,000, according to
Life & Style.
Prior to the show, Cott had transferred from Boston University to the Carnegie Mellon School
of Drama to pursue acting.
The education was expensive, but it definitely paid off.
According to Out, Cott was discovered by Warner Bros. in a Los Angeles talent showcase shortly
after graduation.
Though he originally auditioned for Archie, he was cast as Kevin Keller that same day.
He joked:
"I am either the luckiest actor in the world, or maybe they really just had no other actor
to cast."
It's unclear how much Cott makes from his role, but it's clear he didn't have a glamorous
lifestyle growing up.
The star told Out that his first time ever flying in first class was the when he flew
to the Riverdale table read in Vancouver, but we're guessing it won't be his last.
Vanessa Morgan's run on Riverdale began as a miss.
In an interview with Teen Vogue, the star admitted that she originally tried out for
the role of Josie, but didn't land the part.
Though she managed to foster a serious friendship with her future castmate Madelaine Petsch,
the star booked The Shannara Chronicles and was filming in New Zealand when Riverdale's
casting director circled back around to audition her for Toni Topaz.
The told the publication:
"I just sent a tape from New Zealand, but it's because I built that relationship for
Josie, and the creator told me, 'Don't worry.
We're gonna find a place for you on this show,' and the fact that he actually followed through
on his words and put me in it...This character's way more me than Josie."
Since Morgan is a newcomer on set, it's likely that she doesn't make as much as her Riverdale
co-stars, but regardless, she's about to be living in a dual income household with another
high-earner.
In a July 2019 Instagram post, the actress revealed that she got engaged to professional
baseball player Michael Kopech, who's worth an estimated $800,000.
The couple were married in January 2020.
Besides a cameo on American Horror Story and Glee, Charles Melton had virtually no TV credits
before taking over the role of Reggie Mantle on Riverdale.
The actor was so far removed from Hollywood that he had no idea just what fame would actually
be like.
All he knew was that his dad was a fan of the Archie comics.
In 2018, Melton told WWD:
"I really didn't know what I was walking into.
I mean, if you want to look at numbers, my social media following is up.
You know, it went from 17,800 to, like, 2.7 million, which is kind of crazy."
According to Paper:
"Melton is poised to lead the way for Asian American representation in Hollywood."
A study by the USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism found that Asian
Americans were cast in just one percent of Hollywood's leading roles, despite making
up roughly six percent of the population.
As much as the role is a breath of fresh air, it also stands to be a cash cow for the star.
Melton is worth an estimated $200,000, which seems low in the realm of TV stars before
you acknowledge the fact that Riverdale is the actor's first large role.
It's only up from here.
Skeet Ulrich's estimated $5 million net worth almost seems meaningless when you consider
the fact that the star endured a health scare even more terrifying than anything that happened
in Scream.
In 2010, Los Angeles Magazine reported that the Riverdale star had, quote, "constant bouts
of pneumonia" when he was a kid.
At the ripe age of 10, doctors discovered Ulrich had a congenital heart defect, which
required open-heart surgery.
The surgery left the actor with a huge scar and a different outlook on life.
He told Entertainment Weekly in 2006:
"I had a 25 percent chance of living.
I've had this 'F--- odds' attitude for a long time."
The star did indeed.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Ulrich landed six film roles right after graduating
from New York University, including his breakout role as one of the two antagonists in the
original Scream and a plush spot in the cult classic The Craft.
Today, Ulrich has gone back to his roots as FP Jones in Riverdale, and the series even
makes a reference to his slasher film.
Riverdale's prime demographic is probably a little bit too young to have watched David
Lynch's mystery drama Twin Peaks when it first aired on TV, but as Vulture points out, the
CW series is loaded with imagery lifted from the cult classic.
One of these things is Mädchen Amick, who played Shelly Johnson, a waitress at the infamous
Double R Diner.
Amick amassed an estimated $3 million net worth throughout her career, but the star
always chose longevity before fame.
In an interview with Vice, the actress opened up about how she was never a fan of celebrity,
and how her incredible work ethic helped cement a career that's withstood three decades.
Proof?
She began working on an indie film just four weeks after giving birth to her son in 1992.
She told the publication:
"Every molecule of my body wanted to be home with my son.
Actresses don't get maternity leave...I've never had the luxury that a lot of actresses
do that they're born into the business, or have wealth, and can pick and choose what
they want to work."
So there you have it: Amick might not consider herself wealthy, but she's certainly doing
the darn thing anyway.
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