E.T. Star Breaks Silence on What He Really Earned
Henry Thomas was the face of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, one of the biggest blockbusters of all time. He was 10 years old, landed a Spielberg film, made millions of people cry — and made, in his own words, "basically minimum wage."
With E.T. newly added to Netflix in the UK alongside other heavyweights like Heat and Minority Report, Thomas has been reflecting on the absurd reality of how little he actually earned from the film that defined his childhood — and, let's be honest, typecast his entire career.
Speaking to The Mirror, Thomas said:
"Despite popular belief I didn't make much money from the movie. I was 10 years old, remember. I basically got the minimum wage. Universal and Spielberg did really well. The minions had to go back to work. I do get residual cheques, though, which is great. And I got it better than E.T... he's off in a box somewhere."
To recap, here's what we know:
- E.T. cost $10.5 million to make
- It earned $797.3 million at the global box office
- That's the 1982 equivalent of a film grossing $2.6 billion today
- If Thomas had worked under modern SAG-AFTRA rates (around $1,000/day for a shoot like this), he might've made about $90,000
- Based on 1980s actor rates (roughly $315/day), he likely made under $10,000
Not exactly life-changing for the lead of what was, for a time, the most successful film in cinema history.
Thomas also admitted the experience came with more than just a tiny paycheck. It came with a level of fame his family wasn't remotely prepared for. In the same interview, he said:
"I was a shy kid, and being approached by adults all the time just freaked me out. I was like a circus freak. But the only time I had to deal with it was when I left the house. So I stopped leaving the house. I became an 11-year-old hermit."
In a separate conversation with The Guardian, he described his family as "not well equipped" to handle what came next. And honestly, who would be? One day you're in elementary school, the next you're the face of a film that rivals Avatar and Endgame in adjusted gross — with a childhood permanently warped by it.
Thomas has gone on to have a solid, quieter career, showing up in Scorsese's Gangs of New York, and most recently in Mike Flanagan's The Fall of the House of Usher on Netflix. But he'll always be Elliot to the world. Just don't expect him to have gotten rich off it.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is now streaming on Netflix, in case you want to cry over childhood, alien friendship, and wildly underpaid child actors.