Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner made off extremely well from the TNG movies
Posted by QuaPatetOrbis641988@reddit | TNG | View on Reddit | 95 comments
Stewart got 9 million for Insurrection with Spiner getting 5 million. I wanna say I read Stewart got 14 million for Nemesis. Not sure how much the rest of the cast got for the films but gotta figure they all got at least a million for Insurrection or Nemesis.
Distant_Nomad@reddit
To add to this.. Both actors wanted to quit Insurrection. They despise the movie and hated working on it. It was more of an extended episode; nothong real interesting happened. They weren't big fans of nemesis either.
Overall_Falcon_8526@reddit
Insurrection is about a billion times better than Nemesis.
A reminder that actors often don't know squat about what makes a good story. Case in point: Picard
LAMobile@reddit
I wish I could give this more kudos. Spot on.
Overall_Falcon_8526@reddit
Thanks :-) I don't think Insurrection is perfect by any means. It's decidedly mediocre and its medium-to-big sized ideas devolve into a dumb action climax. But people say "it's like a long episode" as if that's a bad thing.
Since other people are sharing lists, here's mine:
The Voyage Home
The Wrath of Khan
The Search For Spock
First Contact
The Motion Picture
The Undiscovered Country
Generations
Insurrection
The Final Frontier
Nemesis
Star Trek Beyond
ST2009
Into Darkness
grahampc@reddit
Yay for The Voyage Home at #1, but The Motion Picture at #5? I find it almost unwatchable.
Wyojavman@reddit
I feel that way about the voyage home. I haven't rewatched that episode since the 90s. Total Garbage. Id rather watch Quark serve drinks on DS9
Mini_Marauder@reddit
Hmm, for me the TNG movies rank as such 1. First Contact 2. Nemesis 3. Generations
There needs to be a gap here to accurately depict my distaste for Insurrection. 4. Insurrection
Overall_Falcon_8526@reddit
I usually list "Getting Hit By a Bus" in front of the awful choice. :-)
Mini_Marauder@reddit
Ooh, I like that. I'll have to remember that in the future, thanks.
LAMobile@reddit
I was staring at your list wondering if I disagreed with Generations vs Insurrection ranking (I agree with the rest of it).
I used to think Generations was awkward and not great but - you have a point - it is probably better than Insurrection.
Right around the time of First Contact’s debut, movie studios started doubling down on safe bets and the “pew pew, shoot em up in space” has clearly been the only formula they’re comfortable with.
At least First Contact and Insurrection still got away with having a decent-ish plot, but their tones were clearly “action in space” and not true Star Trek. The slide down that hill has just accelerated since then.
Overall_Falcon_8526@reddit
Generations is really helped in my estimation but the Enterprise B scenes
LAMobile@reddit
TMP was special. TUC was really fun, but again it is another example of creeping into the “pew-pew” shoot-em-up in space. Good story, great performances but I’ll entertain it being ranked just below TMP
Overall_Falcon_8526@reddit
Yeah, it's why TVH is my top. It's about ideas, not villains. TMP is similar, just not as entertaining.
-Grabthars_Hammer-@reddit
By Grabthar’s hammer you’re missing galaxy quest from your list!
Overall_Falcon_8526@reddit
I'd probably fit that in at #6, but they really are different things in my mind - mainline story continuation vs. loving comedic tribute. I feel similarly about Orville, though it deserves existence in its own right at this point as a source of high quality sci fi.
ChunkBluntly@reddit
Everyone's opinion differs, but I don't like either of them. The only Trek (any era from TOS cast to JJ Lensflare) movies I've enjoyed were First Contact and Wrath of Khan.
saucekingrich@reddit
Lol JJ Lensflare
Gen_JohnsonJameson@reddit
Also "dangling by your fingernails off a precipice" is another one of his trademarks.
desloch@reddit
Easily the best Trek movies:
First Contact
Wrath of Khan
Star Trek (2009)
Most fans hate Into Darkness but I enjoyed it. Generations, Voyage Home, and Undiscovered Country are mostly entertaining too.
The other six movies range from mediocre to bad (Final Frontier is the worst).
wmagb@reddit
I enjoy Final Frontier, mainly for the camping scenes that bookend the movie.
superSaganzaPPa86@reddit
My kids always get frustrated when I say marshmellons
wmagb@reddit
I was so confused by that. I was like “what the hell are they saying???” Haha
Rabada@reddit
Also great when Spock blasts God in the face with a Klingon disruptor
CantKeepMeOutYo@reddit
Voyage Home is where it's at. How can you hate a movie with whale biologists in it?!
CountVanillula@reddit
They call it like they see it.
Rabada@reddit
1: The Motion Picture
2: Undiscovered Country
3: Wrath of Khan
4: Voyage Home
5: Search for Spock
6: STV
7: Star Trek Beyond
8: ST2009
9: First Contact
10: Insurrection
11: Nemesis
12: Into Darkness
And contrary to popular belief, there is no movie called Generations.
Rickshmitt@reddit
And I still love all the TNG movies. It's them. I wanna see them doing things.
GoldfishMotorcycle@reddit
I just wish they kept the ship.
forced_metaphor@reddit
🙄
cafeesparacerradores@reddit
I share your general sentiment, but I too want to see the cast doing things
Quiri1997@reddit
In Picard the premise was interesting, but they didn't get the pacing well (amongst other things). Still, the actors keep nailing it. The moment in which Picard compares his plan (aborted midway) to save Romulan refugees from the Supernova to the Dunkirk evacuation was quite good.
Overall_Falcon_8526@reddit
I have no quake about the acting, agreed. The stories were gibberish.
Quiri1997@reddit
Kind of? It's more like they had good concepts but didn't know what to do with them, and how.
l008com@reddit
You lost me at "insurrection is better than nemesis" (they're close to equally bad i'd say), but then I got on board again with "actors suck at writing, C.I.P. STPicard"
Overall_Falcon_8526@reddit
It's so, so bad. Even season 3, which everyone creams their pants over. That was badly written (in basically the same ways as S1 and S2 - big, dumb, violent, incoherent) but featured characters that we love.
l008com@reddit
Season 3 was passable i'd say, but with tons of room for improvement. If it was season 1, and then 2 and 3 were other things after that that were even better, that would be great. But why does it always have to be the borg? And also all three seasons have nothing to do with each other, they're completely disjointed. Like they were three season 1's. Ugh a terrible disappointment, only matched by the premier of Discovery. New star trek after all those years, and what they gave us was THAT.
Overall_Falcon_8526@reddit
I checked out mentally when it was revealed that the changeling plot was an 8 episode long fake out. What a waste of everyone's time.
l008com@reddit
NOT TO MENTION three seasons of DS9 easter eggs and teases and ZERO fucking payoff.
Overall_Falcon_8526@reddit
Well, it was created by people who don't like Star Trek.
Prodigy is the show that actually created likable new characters while honoring and continuing the old ones characters.
l008com@reddit
I never saw prodigy but I did like Lower Decks.
Overall_Falcon_8526@reddit
I like the characters and the humor in LD, but the wretched behavior of the officers, and the incessant swearing, takes me out of the "this is the Trek Universe" feeling that I desire. Kind of like the live action shows, except I also dislike the characters.
l008com@reddit
When they opened the door, and it was the borg, for the 3rd season in a row, i was so disappointed.
alurimperium@reddit
Picard really made me lose respect for Patrick Stewart. How much he was willing to shit all over the character and the legacy of the series because he wanted to do a bad love story with a woman less than half his age and tell a bad, completely unveiled story about the modern day...
I guess good for him for having fun, but I just wish he'd have had his fun outside of Star Trek and left the series being the hopeful, comfortable vision of a future we can aspire to rather than a hateful, depressing mirror of our modern day
Overall_Falcon_8526@reddit
Good lord, why not have it be Beverly from the start...
Distant_Nomad@reddit
If actors don't enjoy it...it has nothing to do with what makes a good story
dangerousquid@reddit
Spiner also had complaints about the underlying ethics of the movie, not agreeing that it was necessarily ethical to sacrifice billions to preserve the culture of 600 colonists who weren't even indigenous to the planet.
AtlasFox64@reddit
I suppose the biggest ethical issue here is that no one even asked the Baku what they wanted.
dangerousquid@reddit
That would torpedo the movie though, because then either the Baku would agree to move and the there would be no conflict, or they would refuse and seem like selfish, unsympathetic jerks (instead of the innocent victims that the movie requires them to be). So even though just asking them is the obvious thing to do, the script can't let it happen.
AtlasFox64@reddit
That's true
AtlasFox64@reddit
I was 8 years old, we left the cinema after seeing Insurrection, and I vividly remember saying, yeah it was alright, it felt like a two-part episode of the series.
poptophazard@reddit
The irony of this is that Patrick Stewart is to blame for a lot of Insurrection's direction that he didn't like. Piller wanted to do "Heart of Darkness" in space with the Romulans, but Stewart hated the idea of following up the Borg with the Romulans. He also wanted something more light-hearted, he wanted to be in the action again, and he wanted a love interest.
Granted Piller and others deserve parts of the blame too for how it turned out (for the record I like the film but it's definitely flawed) and this was the beginning of Producer Stewart forcing the stories to take his narrative interests instead of trusting the writers.
dangerousquid@reddit
I'm intrigued as to how that would work. Like 90 minutes of people sitting around talking to each other while they wait for their ship to get somewhere to meet a guy, 5 minutes where they meet the guy but he immediately dies, and then 15 minutes of everyone moping around?
TheArmoursmith@reddit
https://i.redd.it/5d5uf0eac5dd1.gif
QuaPatetOrbis641988@reddit (OP)
how much were they earning from syndication?
TheHYPO@reddit
Was that an era in which actors got anything for the show being aired in syndicated reruns (to be technical, TNG was always in syndication, even when it was first run)?
Turbo_express_Guy@reddit
Really puts the “prosperity” in “Live Long and Prosper” 🫰🖖💰💵
Drakeytown@reddit
Every one of them is a multimillionaire, except for Wil Wheaton, whose net worth is only a trifling one million dollars. I don't think any of them have anything to complain about!
angry-software-dev@reddit
That blows my mind.
He was in TNG, other movies, and has had work as an adult... how is he only worth $1M?
Then I read what he wrote about how his parents essentially took everything.
So he has residuals... hopefully got a few bucks for Picard and BBT regular guest spots. Lord knows he couldn't have earned much from The Guild.
Groundbreaking-Pea92@reddit
that's what happens when a child actors parents spend all the money
DKC_TheBrainSupreme@reddit
He should never had walked away from TNG. You can tell how much he regrets it.
cybersquire@reddit
I remember an old interview where he (at the time) associated TNG with his terrible home life. He essentially walked away from both to escape his domestic situation. Not ideal, but I don’t blame him.
DKC_TheBrainSupreme@reddit
I heard he was upset he didn’t get more screen time and was often told to block off days and weeks to film only to have a couple short scenes. Remember, Wil, Patrick and Levar were the only three that had a real CV. Will Wheaton was well known from Stand By Me, a huge hit. I think when he left the story was he wanted to pursue bigger roles, which obviously never panned out.
Different-Audience34@reddit
Wheaton didnt leverage his notarity for other gigs either
kkkan2020@reddit
Yes all the tng actors essentially made their fortunes from tng.
Physical-Name4836@reddit
Always makes me sad to think about the decision Denise Crosby made to leave. Feel for that woman
Consistent_Self_1598@reddit
I was glad she left. I never liked her character as Tasha Yar. The Rimulan character she played however was fantastic.
Attican101@reddit
It's a shame they didn't bring her back, for DS9 at some point, could have given her a chance for a little more depth, or even some redemption if they wanted to go that route.
kkkan2020@reddit
She made a decision
No one likes to think this is the best I can do or I can do better but when you have limited amount of time to make money in Hollywood...it's best to just make the money
Attican101@reddit
"She made a decision"
Wasn't there also some behind the scenes pressure/controversy, because she did a Playboy shoot? (it's decent)
Though that could just be a Reddit rumour.
kkkan2020@reddit
There's 3 fold question
Paramount execs were jerks Or she was bored with the role Or she did something that forced her dismissal
MasterlessSword@reddit
I saw an interview with her a long time ago where she said that she got offered Pet Sematary but the shoot conflicted with TNG. She said she chose the movie over TNG because she always wanted to be in movies more than TV and that she honestly thought the dhow was going to be cancelled after the first season anyway.
kkkan2020@reddit
Everyone thought tng had no shot. That's sad.
TheHYPO@reddit
Do the TNG actors have "fortunes"?
Patrick Stewart probably made a reasonable large amount of his net worth from the X-Men movies. 3 seasons of Picard probably paid him fairly well too. Spiner got Picard money too, but are the other TNG cast "rich"? I have no information that suggests to me they are or they aren't.
kkkan2020@reddit
Stewart is estimated to have made around $100,000 per episode of tng By the end and around $45,000 per episode in 199. Lets just assume Stewart was getting paid $25,000 per episode in the earlier seasons.this means from the show alone Stewart made $7,440,000 in 1980s/1990s dollars
$5 million from generations $5 million for first contact $9.50 million in for first contact $14 million for nemesis.
So if the rest of the cast even made 1/3 as much as Stewart did they would have made at least $2.23 million from the show and the movies at least $10 million.
Not bad for 15 years worth of toiling
QuaPatetOrbis641988@reddit (OP)
I know the show was a huge hit in syndication but I doubt Stewart was making 25 K an episode in the early seasons.
kkkan2020@reddit
Lets see if he was making $45k by 1992 If we must half his salary per episode in each prior year 1991 $25k 1990 $12k 1989 $6k 1988 $3k 1987 $1.50k
QuaPatetOrbis641988@reddit (OP)
Yeah, I gotta figure the cast were paid peanuts especially Stewart as he was a complete unknown but by season 4, I bet they were starting to see some worthwhile paychecks. His salary for Nemesis was probably inflated due to the first X-Men's box office success.
kkkan2020@reddit
Sad thing was Stewart was an old pro he been in the British entertainment circuit for at least 20 plus years prior to 1987.
MasterlessSword@reddit
But Denise did get to narrate that Trekkies movie so, you know, there’s that
TheHYPO@reddit
What I will say is that:
I don't think it's necessarily valid to assume the rest of the cast made as much as 1/3 of what Stewart made.
Spiner (the second highest billing of the cast) made only 55% of what Stewart made in the Insurrection based on OP's post. Did everyone else made 33%? Maybe... but maybe not.
In any event. What people sometimes fail to appreciate: That number is not what the actor makes. That is their salary. They will have to pay their agents/publicists/accountants/lawyers and that can be anywhere from 15-30% or more. They have to pay any legal fees for their lawyers who review their contracts. I'm not sure what deductions were in place in Hollywood in the early 90s, but now they have to pay several deductions like social security and medicare.
So let's say that your 2.23m conservatively nets down to $1.65m before income taxes even without most deductions.
Now let's note that this is payment for their involvement in TNG from 1987 through 2002. That's $110,000 per year for 15 years of variously 1987 dollars through 2002 dollars (with most of the money coming in later years).
Someone who makes $110,000 pre-tax per year for their entire career (average working life is about 40 years) might be seen as some to be "rich" (in 2024, in the biggest cities, I feel that this is just on the cusp of being within "upper middle class", particularly if they are the only income earner in a family of more than just themselves).
You also have to bear in mind that the cost of living in that area is significantly higher than the cost of living in most of America, meaning their money would have gotten eaten up faster than the average person. Many actors also have to spend more money than the average person on things just to keep up appearances since their looks are often their livelihood like dietitians or private chefs, personal trainers and fitness costs, surgery and procedures, fancier and more clothes and jewellery than the average person might buy, etc.
Now, I am sure the cast other than Stewart has made a lot of money through Trek via conventions - I have no idea how many they do in a year and what they are paid (I do understand there's a range), so perhaps they are able to make a comfortable $100k a year still off of Trek. They also do other acting work, and some of them direct.
The bottom line is that I have little doubt they are comfortable because of Trek. I am not sure that most of them have fortunes because of Trek. Though I suppose it depends on how you define that word.
kkkan2020@reddit
Good assessment
setokaiba22@reddit
Not bad at all but a few divorces I think during that probably took some of it away
kkkan2020@reddit
It's crazy that Stewart had 2 divorces. The other cast members never got divorced. The only one comparable would be sirtis where her Husband passed away.
Luftgekuhlt_driver@reddit
Michael Dorn made enough to buy and operate an F- 86 Sabre. A gen 1 fighter that gobbles gas like that isn’t a cheap proposition. Then there’s keeping it airworthy and hangared at Van Nuys, which is an expensive airport.
MasterlessSword@reddit
Actually, it’s an ‘86 LeSabre and it needs a new transmission
TheHYPO@reddit
To be fair, he starred in an extra 4 seasons of Trek, and also presumably had pretty damn good negotiating power to get a decent salary to get him to come try and save DS9. So it wouldn't surprise me if he made more from Trek than Burton, Sirtis or Frakes.
But if I'm being pedantic, part of that is not from TNG, but from DS9, and the statement was "the tng actors essentially made their fortunes from tng". I know he supplemented his income with conventions as did most of the others, and perhaps I'm wrong. Or perhaps he just decided to splurge on something crazy as certain people of any income bracket occasionally do.
[https://www.trade-a-plane.com/search?make=NORTH+AMERICAN&model_group=NORTH+AMERICAN+F86+SERIES&s-type=aircraft]
It doesn't appear that an F86 is crazy expensive (at the time of posting, there are ones for sale on this site at $45k and $98k). That's certainly within the range of a typical sailboat or motorboat or camping trailer that many comfortable, but not "fortune"-having people opt to buy.
I'm not sure, but it seems to got that one after his time on Picard? So perhaps that income was enough to splurge? It also seems he's traded up planes over the years too, so the sale of his old plane(s) would have presumably helped fun his current one(s).
Again, I have zero doubt he is well off and comfortable, but I am not sure one way or the other whether he has a "fortune".
sbernardjr@reddit
I heard a great interview with Marina Sirtis on Alice Wetterlund and Veronica Osorio's podcast Treks and the City (highly recommend).
She was talking about how the studio was trying to low-ball her with their offer to be in one of the movies. They kept trying to pressure her, saying "Well, we can always get Jeri Ryan instead" and she told them "You're not getting Jeri Ryan for this money, either!'
redtert@reddit
If he's so well off then why is he always bumming money off of Levar Burton?
Consistent_Self_1598@reddit
Dude that's the first I've ever heard of that series lol Got me something new to watch with all my favorite actors 😁
redtert@reddit
It's mainly just Brent.
l008com@reddit
Imagine how much they would have made if the TNG movies had been good!
Consistent_Self_1598@reddit
Ya I thought they were all terrible. It felt like they abandoned everything that made the show special and threw it up on the big screen. For me, it was a shame.
l008com@reddit
I kinda liked the first one, Generations. I found the borg one very disappointing for what it could have been. Insurrection was just plain bad, and Nemesis was shit.
URmyBFFforsure@reddit
Well considering Spiner was adamant he would "never" portray Data again numerous times after TNG in interviews...but then obviously did,
The more you make the more you spend. Especially if it turns out you don't really get any other good roles. Wheaton comes to mind...as does Crosby.
Hell, Crosby will cook you dinner for $20 at this point.
Groundbreaking-Pea92@reddit
Stewart basically a pauper compared to Blalock