Film Career · Above the Line
Executive Producer
Above the Line · Not unionized
- Union
- Non-union
- Day rate
- ~$150K–$500K/yr
- Experience
- 9–17 yrs
What does an Executive Producer do?
Executive producer covers a range of realities: the person who financed the film, the packager who attached the elements, or the studio's senior representative. On television the showrunner carries the EP title, where it is the top creative job on the show.
What does an Executive Producer make?
- About $75K-$500K per feature, or $15K-$60K an episode as a TV showrunner-EP.
- Roughly $150K-$500K a year working, $1M-$5M+ for top showrunners.
- The title spans financiers, showrunners, and credited investors, so the range is enormous.
Film work is gig based, so crew are paid a day or weekly rate rather than a salary. These are realistic 2024-2025 ranges grounded in union rate cards and industry data; actual pay swings with budget tier, market, overtime, and reputation.
Sources & how we estimate pay
Union scale is the floor; the ranges above also reflect market day rates above scale. They are grounded in the following 2024–2025 sources:
Union rate cards & wage schedules
Official guild scale — the floor each craft is paid from.
- IATSE — 2024 Basic Agreement wage scales (PDF) ↗
- IATSE Local 600 (International Cinematographers Guild) — camera rate cards ↗
- DGA — minimum salary rate cards (director, unit production manager, assistant directors) ↗
- WGA — schedule of minimums (writers) ↗
- SAG-AFTRA — theatrical & background rate sheets (cast, stunts, background) ↗
- Teamsters Local 399 — basic feature wage rates, 2024–27 (transportation, locations, wranglers) (PDF) ↗
Government wage data
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, for the closest federal occupation.
On the job
- Secure or represent the financing that makes the production possible
- Package the elements: script, director, cast, and distribution
- Oversee the production's business at the highest level without running it daily
- In television, run the show creatively as the showrunner EP
You’ll like and be good at this job if:
Hard skills
- You can raise money, structure deals, and manage risk
- You understand the business of a production end to end
Soft skills
- You are comfortable with big-picture strategy and relationships
- You can make hard calls and carry ultimate responsibility
Career progression
There is no ladder to EP; there are several doors. Producers grow into it by packaging bigger projects, financiers earn it by funding them, agents and executives cross into it from the business side, and television writers rise to it through the writers room ranks to showrunner.
A typical path, from entry to the top of the craft. Times are rough and vary by market, luck, and how steadily the work comes.
- Line Producer· 4-7 yrs
~$150K–$350K/yr
- Producer· 5-10 yrs
~$90K–$300K/yr
- Executive Produceryou are here· peak of the craft
~$150K–$500K/yr
How do you become an Executive Producer?
Pick the door that matches your skills. Creative EPs almost always ascend from producing or writing credits; financial EPs bring money or the relationships that find it. Either way the title follows leverage: control of material, talent, or capital.
Covered by a union? The joining a film union guide explains how each one takes members.