How Much The Cast Of Riverdale Is Really Worth

Everything about Riverdale makes absolutely no sense, but that's part of what makes it so good. It's a Twin Peaks-inspired revival of a wholesome, 1940s comic book. Seemingly 80 percent of the residents of this small town, where leagues of people are mysteriously killed, inexplicably have red hair. Beyond a former Disney Channel star, the lead roles consist of relatively unknown actors — some of which have never landed a recurring role before the CW series — and yet, it has record ratings that soared with teens, up "467 percent" from the first to second season, according to Vulture. Um, wow. 

Riverdale's success has transformed the majority of the cast into celebrities overnight, and while most of us are pretty focused on who in the Riverdale cast is dating who, and their various adorable friendships, it's hard not to wonder about the money. These Riverdale stars may not be the richest actors on television — it isn't The Big Bang Theory, after all – but they're certainly on their way.

Kiwi actor KJ Apa was bracing for his breakthrough role when he landed the lead of Riverdale's Archie Andrews. Other than helping bolster Kleenex sales with A Dog's Purpose and cutting his TV mystery teeth in the New Zealand drama The Cul De Sac, the star had minimal credits prior to the CW series. That changed very quickly after Riverdale's premiere. Today, the actor lives the kind of luxe life where he's allegedly invited to house parties at Paris Hilton's house, then actually hit on by the heiress (if Us Weekly is to be believed). Must be nice.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, the Apa has racked up a $3 million net worth, which probably has a lot to do with his work on Riverdale. Variety reported that, like his co-star Cole Sprouse, Apa makes $40,000 per episode. And he works really, really hard for that money. In fact, he works so hard that it might border on dangerous. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Apa totalled his car in the early hours of the morning when he fell asleep behind the wheel during a 45-minute drive home after a 16-hour day of filming. Though he walked away without any serious injuries, the accident was severe enough to prompt a SAG-AFTRA workplace investigation.

Camila Mendes had almost no professional experience when she landed the role of Veronica Lodge on Riverdale. According to W Magazine, prior to fame, the actress was a typical college student at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She graduated in 2016, a month after she started what she called "the most harrowing audition process" for Riverdale. Mendes was apparently not yet well-versed in the art of enduring major stresses, you know, like growing up in a murdery town where everyone seems like they're out to get you (which could be an allegory for Hollywood if you really think about it hard enough). 

"They were like, 'You're our top choice, but we want to open up a new search, and we want someone that can compete with you,'" she told W Magazine of her audition. "I lost sleep, I was crying every night because it felt like I was so close to something that could be big, and like my life and career changing, but in the end it all worked out."

Worked out is an understatement. The star went from doing little more than an Ikea commercial to raking in $40,000 per episode (or $880,000 per season) according to Variety. For a very first credited gig, that ain't half bad. Celebrity Net Worth clocks the stars total worth at an estimated $3 million.

Ashleigh Murray was flat-out broke before landing a role on Riverdale. The star was just a newcomer with only a few tiny credits to her name when she took on the massive, storied character Josie McCoy, lead singer of Josie and the Pussycats. That means she landed the same role that Tara Reid supposedly snatched from Beyonce, who allegedly auditioned for the early aughts version of the film. 

In an interview with Collider, Murray admitted that before her Riverdale audition, she was "$4,700 behind in rent," and had to wash her clothes in the bathroom sink because she didn't have enough money to do laundry. She was planning to take six months off from the industry in order to get back on her feet. "[Riverdale] was my last audition. So, I went on the audition, and the next day, I was on my way home from the grocery store with $12 in my bank account," she told the outlet. "I had to call my mom and ask her for an extra $5 because the last of it went to food at Whole Foods, just so that I could get home."

As of this writing, it's not clear how much Murray makes from her role on Riverdale, but it's probably a pretty penny if her costars are raking in $40,000 per episode. 

According to TMZ, Luke Perry tragically passed away in March 2019 at the age of 52 after being hospitalized for a stroke. Though the star's death gutted the Riverdale cast, where he served as a mentor and father figure figure to his younger co-stars, the actor's legacy not only withstands, but proved to be quite lucrative.

Perry managed to amass an estimated $10 million net worth through his sprawling, decades-long career. Though he's had roles in a number of cult classics like The Fifth Element and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, he's perhaps best known for this work on Beverly Hills, 90210. It's also likely responsible for a huge chunk of his overall earnings. Perry's co-star Jenny Garth admitted in her memoir Deep Thoughts From a Hollywood Blonde that the series was really "good money — money on a level that I just didn't understand when I was a teenager." According to The Hollywood Reporter, the reboot earned the cast a base salary of $420,000 for just six episodes, and though Perry was sadly not part of the production, it does speak to how much he probably made back in the '90s.

It's unclear how much Perry made specifically from Riverdale, but one thing is clear: the actor was absolutely beloved. According to Us Weekly, the executive producers teamed up with Perry's family to plan a tearful farewell episode for the Season 4 premiere.

Besides a cameo on American Horror Story and Glee, Charles Melton had virtually no TV credits before landing the recurring role of Reggie Mantle on Riverdale. The actor was so far removed from Hollywood that he had no idea just what fame would actually be like. All he knew was that his dad was a fan of the Archie comics. "I really didn't know what I was walking into," Melton told WWD in a 2018 interview. "I mean, if you want to look at numbers, my social media following is up. You know, it went from 17,800 to, like, 2.7 million, which is kind of crazy."

Since debuting his recurring role 2017, Melton has been "posed to lead the way for Asian American representation in Hollywood," according to Paper. A study by the USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalist (via the New York Times) found that Asian Americans were cast in just one percent of Hollywood's leading roles despite making up roughly six percent of the population. As much as the role is a breath of fresh air, it also stands to be a cash cow for the star. Melton is worth an estimated $200,000, which seems low in the realm of TV stars before you acknowledge the fact that Riverdale is the actor's first large role. It's only up from here.

Riverdale's prime demographic is probably a little bit too young to have watched David Lynch's mystery drama Twin Peaks when it first aired on TV, but as Vulture points out, the CW series is loaded with imagery lifted from the cult classic. One of these things is Mädchen Amick, who played Shelly Johnson, a waitress at the infamous Double R Diner.

Amick amassed an estimated $3 million net worth throughout her career, but the star always chose longevity before fame. In an interview with Vice, the actress opened up about how she was never a fan of celebrity, and how her incredible work ethic helped cement a career that's withstood three decades. Proof? She began working on an indie film just four weeks after giving birth to her son in 1992.

"Every molecule of my body wanted to be home with my son," she told Vice. "Actresses don't get maternity leave... I've never had the luxury that a lot of actresses do that they're born into the business, or have wealth, and can pick and choose what they want to work." So there you have it: Amick might not consider herself wealthy, but she's certainly doing the darn thing anyway.