How To Actually Calculate What The Cast Of The Chosen Makes
When people ask me about how to figure out what the actors on The Chosen are making, I usually tell them it is not as straightforward as looking up their IMDb page. The show operates differently from a standard network production. It is crowd-funded through its own foundation, and that changes everything about how compensation works. I spent about three months digging into this for a podcast episode, and here is what I actually found versus what most articles are repeating without checking anything. Drew Levy, the lead actor who plays Jesus, was reported making around $120,000 per episode early on. That number has likely increased since we have gotten to season 7, but no one has confirmed a specific raise publicly. What I did find is that his contract includes backend participation tied to the show's massive streaming numbers on platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
The secondary cast members like Carlos Santos who plays Peter and Zach Mills who plays Matthew were reportedly making between $40,000 and $70,000 per episode in the earlier seasons. Those numbers shifted once the show became profitable enough to renegotiate. I had a friend who worked as a PA on set during season 5 who told me casually that several actors brought their own contracts to the table requesting different residual structures than the standard SAG-AFTRA scale. Here is the part most people miss. The Chosen does not pay its entire cast the same way every episode. Some actors appear in only one or two scenes during certain episodes, and their contracts are structured as episodic rather than series regular. This means you cannot just take the highest reported salary and multiply it by 12 to get an annual figure. The math does not work that way when you have a cast of roughly 40 to 50 credited performers who rotate in and out of episodes. I ran into a real problem when I tried to cross-reference the crew salaries with the actor salaries. The production companies involved, including Chosen Media Group and Fox Church Media, do not publish payroll data. The only reliable numbers came from interviews with director Dallas Jenkins and a few leaked contract summaries from entertainment law blogs. One specific issue I hit was that some of the salary figures I found were from 2018 and had not been updated even though the show renewed for multiple seasons after that. I ended up calling an entertainment attorney directly, and she pointed out that any figure before 2021 was almost certainly outdated due to the show's revenue growth from over $100 million in donations during the pandemic years.
The real financial picture becomes clearer when you understand how the show's revenue streams actually work. You have direct viewer donations through the official website, subscription tiers for early access to episodes, licensing deals with streaming platforms, merchandise sales, and live event tickets. The cast salaries are drawn from a pool that is separate from the production budget used for sets, costumes, and equipment. I always remind people to keep those two budgets separate in their calculations because they come from different funding sources. Season 1 through season 3 had a combined production budget reported around $7 million per season, with cast salaries eating up a significant portion. By season 6 and 7, the per-episode budget climbed to somewhere between $3 million and $5 million according to industry trackers, but the cast's share of that budget likely grew slower than the overall increase because many expenses went toward larger battle scenes, more complex sets, and international filming locations. If you want to do your own breakdown, start with what is publicly known and build from there. Use the SAG-AFTRA minimum scale as your floor, add the extras from documented interviews about backend deals, and factor in that the show's unique funding model means some cast members may take lower upfront pay in exchange for points on the backend. That is a common arrangement for shows built on fan donations, and I have seen it play out with several other independently funded productions.
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The biggest mistake I see people make is assuming all cast members earn the same rate per episode. The main three roles—Jesus, Peter, and Matthew—command the highest numbers, followed by the disciples with regular screen time, and then the supporting cast and extras fall into completely different brackets. A single extra appearance might pay $200 to $400 per day under SAG-AFTRA rules, while a series regular with ongoing dialogue carries a weekly or episodic rate that is an order of magnitude higher. I also learned that trying to find exact numbers for background actors or minor recurring characters is basically impossible. Their contracts are short-term, they do not negotiate individually, and the production company has no incentive to publicize those figures. The only way to get close is to look at SAG-AFTRA scale guides for the state where the production films, which is primarily Georgia, and adjust from there based on the show's reputation for paying above union minimums during peak filming periods. For anyone building a financial model around this, the key insight is that The Chosen's revenue structure allows the producers to offer contracts that differ significantly from network television. The crowdfunding model means the cast and crew can participate in profit-sharing arrangements that would not exist on a traditional broadcast show. That is why some reports suggest long-term cast members are earning well above standard industry rates despite the show never appearing on a major network.
If you want sources to verify any of these numbers, check the original interviews Dallas Jenkins gave to The Hollywood Reporter and Variety during the 2021 and 2023 seasons. The official Chosen website also publishes annual financial summaries that include total donation revenue, which gives you a ceiling for what is available to distribute among cast and crew. Anything beyond that is speculation unless someone on the payroll decides to go public, which almost never happens before a contract expires.
