Singer Dylan Sprouse disclosed during the Wildmen podcast, hosted by his former co-star Phil Lewis, that he received only one royalty check for Disney's hit series, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. The amount he received was shockingly small. Sprouse stated that the only royalty check received for the series, along with its sequel, came from a crossover episode with Hannah Montana and amounted to a mere five cents. The actor emphasized that, at the time, royalties should have been significantly higher given the show's immense popularity. He described the show as extremely popular yet 'extremely underfunded' at the channel level. Lewis explained that contract structures with the cast allowed producers to treat a large number of episodes filmed within a single calendar year as one season. This contractual maneuver avoided paying additional salary increases for new seasons, resulting in minimized compensation for actors. Royalties are periodic payments actors receive when their past work is rebroadcast or reused. Although The Suite Life of Zack and Cody aired between 2005 and 2008, and its spin-off The Suite Life on Deck ran from 2008 to 2011, Sprouse highlighted the complete absence of significant revenue generated from repeated broadcasts, especially in a pre-streaming era. [1]
- Categories:
- Entertainment
- Entities:
