A ballpark figure anyway.
Does he get a standard each time the who is aired (assuming the theme is played)? Does that include syndicated broadcasts? Does he get anything when there’s a YouTube video of the show’s opening?
Yes, he gets money each time the show is aired. He’s worth $50 million. A large proportion of that comes from the theme to The Simpsons.
To be honest, I didn’t earn that much from it initially. I certainly didn’t do it for the money, just for the enjoyment. The amount was not impressive – a few thousand at best, but the royalties have been good, or so my accountant tells me. The most lucrative part was having sung those three syllables ‘The Simp-sons’. That was me and two others on vocals. It’s paid for my health insurance. It also got me into the Screen Actors Guild [SAG] for people who do vocal work.
Slightly off topic but thought it a good place to put it, anyone else wondering whether he wrote The Simpsons theme or this first? Definitely had one playing in his head when he wrote the other!
All of his movie soundtracks basically sound the same as the Simpsons theme – lots of runs up and down scales.
Brahms sez: “Where are my royalties?”
Wow, yeah, that opening refrain is very familiar. I guess if you’re going to ‘borrow’, borrow from the best. Go big or go home.
Also “Maria,” from West Side Story, by Bernstein. Those first three notes, the ones that comprise a stand-alone intro. The intervals make a tritone, also found in some heavy metal.
Just curious; about how much would he get paid per airing?
I can’t find any answer to that. I can’t find how much he gets per airing. It’s not even clear if he gets money for each airing. There are inconsistent statements online. Basically, that’s because it’s stated in the contact he signed and that’s not publicly available.
I wonder if the amount is higher for the initial broadcast, lower for network repeats and still lower for syndicated repeats. And is it dependent on the number of viewers?
“The Simpsons…I’ve just watched a show called The Simpsons…”
I’ve also wondered just how much Dan Castellaneta, Hank Azaria and the rest of the voice cast have made in total. I assume it’s a whole lot more.
There’s a four-note motif in the Simpsons theme that’s identical to a repeated passage from another West Side Story number, “Something’s ComIng.” (It’s the same four notes Bernstein uses for “soon as it shows,” “under a tree,” etc.)
I may be talking out my ass but I don’t think residuals are covered under individual contracts. They are covered under the ASCAP collective bargaining agreement.
I don’t know specifically about The Simpsons but I’ve read elsewhere that the initial payout is usually OK but a hit tv show will earn much more over time. The guy who wrote the theme to Cheers was paid $150 up front. He has been able to live off the money he gets from it ever since. An established writer like Elfman would get a lot more money upfront