The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a certified cult classic, but during the film's inception 50 years ago, the lead characters weren't paid as much as you probably think. The 1975 musical horror film starred Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick as the innocent Janet Weiss and Brad Majors, respectively, but it was Sarandon, 78, who brought home a bigger paycheck than her costar. "Susan made more money than you!" Bostwick, 80, said in a clip from the documentary SANE INSIDE INSANITY shared by People on Friday, September 26. "Susan made $5,000 more than me. I think I made $15,000 and she made $20,000 on the whole movie ... and that was pretty much all we've gotten out of it." The actor added, "We got a little bit of the soundtrack. We got, like, $1,000 or something a year, less than that now." Barbra Streisand Says She Was 'Pissed' Over 'Meet the Fockers' Paycheck Bostwick wasn't the only star from the glam-rock film who chimed in about the jarring paychecks the cast received. Patricia Quinn, who portrayed Magenta, also appeared in the documentary, expressing gratitude for the opportunity despite the little pay. "But we were lucky to be making it! Who cared! I think we got $300 a week, but I don't remember at all," Quinn, 81, recalled. Annabel Leventon, who played a Transylvanian in the movie, echoed, "We certainly got paid peanuts. We all knew it was a low-budget film." Similarly, her fellow Transylvanian Lindsay Ingram said, "I was paid £100 a week to film the Rocky Horror film." (C) 20th Century Fox /courtesy Everett Collection Rocky Horror also starred Tim Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, Richard O'Brien as Riff Raff, Little Nell as Columbia, Jonathan Adams as Dr. Everett V. Scott, Peter Hinwood as Rocky Horror, Meat Loaf as Eddie and Charles Gray as the criminologist. Celebrating 50 years since the campy flick hit theaters, the cast certainly has no shortage of recollections from the set and its initial flop at the box office. In a past interview with Bobbie Wygant that resurfaced on Facebook in 2024, Curry, 79, was asked if he "made lots of money" off of the film in the years after its release. "Oh no, I wish," he candidly responded. "I had sort of a tiny percentage of the producers' profit, which basically would probably cover some of my mortgage, I should think. It certainly didn't get me a private plane, but I'm grateful for small mercies. It was my first movie and I was lucky to have any kind of percentage at all." Rocky Horror had a small budget but its cultural impact was mighty. "For a film like that, you would never ever have gotten a big budget because people thought you were insane," casting director Celestia Fox said in the documentary. "The studio would have thought, 'The only way it's worth doing is if it costs absolutely nothing,' and just maybe, they might make a bit of money out of it." Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo 'Wicked' Pay Gap Rumors Are 'Completely False' However, she said that the paychecks the cast received were a sign of the times. "It was absolutely the going rate," Fox added. "It just, as it turned out, [producer] Lou Adler and [20th Century] Fox, everybody ended up making millions and millions." Earlier this year, Sarandon discussed the low compensation in the documentary Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror and how it impacted her living arrangement in London. "It was a very low-budget film. When I got to London, I didn't have anywhere to stay and I kept moving every two or three days," she said. "I would take my birth control pills and my toothbrush and I would go into a new apartment every few days."