So I’m watching a crappy new cartoon, Stroker & Hoop, & I recognize Jon Glaser & Curtis Armstrong’s voices, & I wonder - what kind of money do voice actors get? I know there are many people making a good living on voice acting - anybody know how good?
First, Stroker and Hoop isn’t new. Second, it is very funny. Third, I don’t think the money is huge unless you are a big star doing a top tier movie or video game.
That said, there is a lot of voice over work out there and the top notch voice actors work steadily, which probably overcomes the lack of huge paycheques.
Have you tried googling “voice acting rates”? The first three links give rather detailed info.
I am a professional narrator of eLearning courses. I started out doing local radio spots and web adds. While folks think there is big money in that sort of thing, the truth is, commercials tend to be on-off jobs. Good money for a hour or two’s work, but not a salary. In fact, a friend of mine does commercials for a car dealership. He’s contractually prohibited from doing other commercials in that market. A nice gig, with an anchor.
As Ike said, if you are a big name, you get big bucks regardless. Very, very few people land the magical “video game” voice job (frankly I don’t know why these gigs are seen as so nifty. It’s not like you’re playing the game.)
I can make a fairly comfortable living doing voice-overs and narration for business because, frankly, businesses have budgets for eLearning. I get a lot of repeat business from customers who want to maintain a consistent sound. It’s not glamorous. I don’t get to say “did you hear me on the radio?”, but I get steady work doing what I like to do.
You can get a lot of money a few times, or a little money a lot of times. Like any other business, if you’re making big money, someone else will come along and do it for a little less.
A friend of mine got cast in the recent Sherman and Peabody movie and made a whopping $640 (for a decently sized part at that), but she is not considered a “name” actor (although she had a decent career going about 20 years ago). The big score would be if it becomes an animated series (perhaps after a sequel) and she hopes to get consistent work and then be paid much better.
According to the SAG/AFTRA scale chart, the “scale” rate for voiceover appears to be $447 for the first hour each day, and $118 for each additional hour.
I’m occasionally involved in casting voice actors for videogames. Most of the time we can get good talent for scale. Sometimes we’ll pay double or triple scale for a voice acting star like Tom Kane or Tara Strong. Unless you’re hiring somebody for celebrity name recognition, you don’t need to spend more than that.
The Hamster King, if you know, for the sake of reference to my own gaming experience, what would somebody like Colleen Clinkenbeard be likely to get? Voicing recurring characters in popular anime (Dragonball Z), video games (Lilith in Borderlands, Dragon Age)?