How Much Did Rocky Horror Picture Show Stars Get Paid? Who Made the Most? (Exclusive)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show cast’s love of the film far outweighed their financial gain.

SANE INSIDE INSANITY, the new “unofficial, unauthorized and unbiased documentary” of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, released in select cinemas to coincide with its 50th anniversary, features frank discussions about earnings from the beloved stage production that was turned into the 1975 cult classic.

Documentary director Andreas Zerr shared an exclusive clip with PEOPLE in which stars of the film talk about the financial compensation they received.

“Susan made more money than you!” Barry Bostwick, 80, who played Brad Majors opposite Sarandon’s Janet Weiss, recalls finding out. “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.”

He continues, “We got a little bit of the soundtrack. We got like $1,000 or something a year, less than that now.”

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Asked about the money she made for the film, Patricia Quinn, 81, who played Magenta, says, “But we were lucky to be making it! Who cared! I think we got $300 a week, but I don’t remember at all.”

Other members of the cast also discuss their paychecks. Jeremy Newson, who played Ralph Hapschatt and who died in 2020 at age 73, recalls making 200£, adding, “Not bad for a day’s work, at the time.”

Annabel Leventon, 83, who was one of the Transylvanians in the film, says, “We certainly got paid peanuts. We all knew it was a low-budget film.

Another Transylvanian, Lindsay Ingram, 77, says, “I was paid 100£ a week to film the Rocky Horror film.”

Casting director Celestia Fox explains the financial decisions that were made behind the scenes: “For a film like that, you would never ever have gotten a big budget because people thought you were insane. 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.”

She later adds, “It was absolutely the going rate. It just, as it turned out, [producer] Lou Adler and [20th Century] Fox, everybody ended up making millions and millions.”

Zerr tells PEOPLE that the documentary “hopefully reflects” the show’s complex legacy and “that it’s not always peach and cream, per se.”

“Rocky Horror is a very, very good thing that happened to the world, made the world a better place for so many people,” he adds. “But there’s also a very — not a dark side, but a side of Rocky Horror which is kept more in the shadow, and that’s, for example, the compensation.”

“Back in the day, when they signed the contracts for the first stage play, or especially for the film, I think they thought they made a good deal, but nobody could have ever foreseen what would come out of Rocky Horror,” Zerr continues.

Like many others, he was surprised to find out how little the talent that brought the movie to life was paid.

“I would have thought that people like Barry Bostwick, or Susan Sarandon, or Patricia Quinn would’ve been better compensated, at least when the film got out on video, or for the countless merchandise, which has been sold with their likeness — little toys, T-shirts with Transylvanians and Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon and whatnot,” he says.

“I think the studio could have been a little more generous, but in the end, it’s their decision, and in the end, it’s legally correct what they’ve done,” he continues, adding, “I wouldn’t exactly say it was fair, but the people who did it, or who gained financial success with it, have to decide on their own whether or not it’s right or wrong.”

SANE INSIDE INSANITY is now playing in select theaters.