Cole and Dylan Sprouse Made $20K Per Episode Salary for ‘The Suite Life of Zack and Cody’
TV stars can’t always demand the kind of high-paying gigs entertainers receive for movies. This is even more true when it comes to child actors. However, in some cases, breakout stars are able to negotiate paydays that make their peers jealous. Cole and Dylan Sprouse, the titular stars of the Disney Channel sitcom The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, certainly qualify.
Cole and Dylan Sprouse starred on ‘The Suite Life of Zack and Cody’ from 2005 to 2008
On the show, the young actors — who broke through on TV’s Grace Under Fire and the 1999 film Big Daddy — play Zack and Cody Martin. The twin brothers live in a suite at Boston’s Tipton Hotel.
With the show primarily set within the hotel, Zack and Cody get into all manner of mischief with other kids, often with the twins going up against hotel manager Mr. Moseby (Phil Lewis). Cole and Dylan Sprouse, of course, are only one example in a long line of twins hired to be child actors.
Back in the 1990s in particular, this was common practice, perhaps most notably with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen sharing the role of Michelle Tanner on Full House. Cole Sprouse has since spoken out about the “economic loophole” element of hiring twins as child actors.
How much did Cole and Dylan Sprouse earn for the Disney show?
In any case, the Sprouse twins certainly earned a fortune for their work on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. According to Ms. Mojo, the actors each earned $20,000 per episode. Taking into account that the show ran for 87 episodes, Cole and Dylan potentially earned as much as $3.5 million together during their three-season run on Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
Individually, those numbers put them just shy of making Ms. Mojo’s ranked list of the highest-paid TV child actors. But together, they outearned The Wizards of Waverly Place star Selena Gomez, who reportedly made as much as $30,000 per episode. And the Sprouse twins’ total doesn’t take into account follow-ups such as sequel series The Suite Life of Deck and 2011’s The Suite Life Movie.
What are Cole and Dylan Sprouse worth today?
Throughout the 2000s, Cole and Dylan Sprouse continued to work together, either sharing a role or playing twin characters like Zack and Cody Martin. Dor a long while, this worked to their advantage.
In fact, the twins together are reportedly worth roughly $16 million. In addition to The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, the actors have enjoyed successful careers individually too. Dylan Sprouse has worked mostly on film in the 2010s, appearing in movies like Banana Split, After We Collided, and most recently, My Fake Boyfriend.
Cole Sprouse, meanwhile, has stayed mostly on television. Since 2017, the actor has starred as Forsythe “Jughead” Jones III on The CW’s Riverdale. That show will conclude in August 2023 with the end of its seventh season.
