The actors in the Prime Video series played a big part in making it a hugely popular show for young adults, but making the movie adaptation hasn’t gone as smoothly as expected.
A recent report from Deadline reveals that the cast of The Summer I Turned Pretty is facing a salary disagreement as they prepare to film a movie that will finish the story. The series, based on Jenny Han’s popular novels, started slowly but quickly became more popular. By its third and final season, it had become a major cultural hit, generating a lot of discussion online and passionate fan theories about Belly’s love life with Conrad and Jeremiah.
The show’s huge success convinced Prime Video to make a movie to conclude the story, which surprised viewers who thought the series had finished after three seasons. Although the cast seemed eager to start filming, a recent report from Deadline suggests that discussions about their pay and roles in the movie have become difficult since the project was first announced last year.
Lola Tung, Christopher Briney, and Gavin Casalegno, the main actors in the series, initially earned around $35,000 to $40,000 per episode for the first season – a standard rate for newcomers starring in a show for young adults. As the series became more popular, the actors sought higher salaries. Recent negotiations about pay for future seasons became connected to their involvement in the planned movie, which is scheduled to begin filming on April 27.
Sources at Deadline report that some actors hesitated to agree to the film unless they were promised higher pay for future seasons of the show. While it’s normal for actors to renegotiate their salaries on popular shows, there’s no guarantee they will get a raise, as their contracts often include only small, scheduled increases.
In the end, the main actors, including Sean Kaufman and Rain Spencer, accepted new contracts that included higher pay for Season 3—potentially around $100,000 per episode—and terms for a future movie. However, some sources close to the cast said that at least some of the actors felt forced into agreeing to the deals, describing the negotiations as happening “under duress.” The studio, according to a report from Deadline, insists that the actors were on board with the plan.
The report suggests the movie’s pay structure doesn’t quite match the show’s popularity. Key cast members, like Kaufman (Steven) and Spencer (Taylor), reportedly received payment equal to about three episode fees for the film. Attempts to increase their compensation after the huge success of Season 3 were unsuccessful.
The third season attracted around 70 million viewers worldwide in its first two months and stayed in Prime Video’s top 10 list for several months. This sparked further discussion about whether the actors are fairly compensated for their contribution to the show’s popularity.
With filming for the The Summer I Turned Pretty movie starting up, the actors are heading back to Cousins Beach for a last season. However, according to Deadline, discussions about fair pay and appreciation are still ongoing, and this could set a precedent for how young stars are treated on future popular shows.
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2026-04-01 21:50