Big Money: How Reese Witherspoon Earned Billions from Content Creation

Aside from decades of acting, Reese Witherspoon created her very own production company and book club—both of which have garnered a ton of cash.

Reese Witherspoon may be known for her illustrious acting career, but did you know that she made almost a billion dollars from just creating content?

Yes, she is known for the many iconic roles she’s playedfrom spunky lawyer Elle Woods in Legally Blonde to fashion designer Melanie Smooter in Sweet Home Alabama, among others.

But beyond acting, the Academy Award-winning powerhouse is also a Hollywood producer, owner of a successful clothing company, and even one of the highest-paid entertainers according to Forbes with a net worth of $430 million (around PHP24.7 billion). Truly a multi-hyphenated woman who has been bringing in the big bucks!

Curious? Here’s how she did it.

Say Hello to Hello Sunshine

A woman who advocates for women by telling their stories. This is the driving force behind Hello Sunshine—Witherspoon’s media company, which was founded in 2016. As a joint venture that’s focused on telling female-driven stories on film, TV, and digital platforms,

In early August of 2021, however, part of Hello Sunshine was sold to a Blackstone-backed media company, which is led by former Disney executives Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, for a whopping USD$900 million (around PHP52 billion).

Even with the purchase, Witherspoon and Sarah Harden—Hello Sunshine’s CEO—have continued to oversee day-to-day operations. Likewise, they are still significant equity holders (an estimated 18% stake in the business for Witherspoon), as they have a seat on the board. This gives them rights and shares to the company’s current and future productions.

All throughout, Hello Sunshine has expanded its portfolio to include:

Hit Films and Television Shows

As a production house by nature, Hello Sunshine has produced many hit shows like Big Little Lies, Little Fires Everywhere, and The Morning Show. And each one guaranteed her a hefty paycheck.

According to Forbes, the drama-mystery Big Little Lies guaranteed Witherspoon a USD$7 million paycheck for the second season alone! What’s more, The Morning Show—a collaborative project between Witherspoon and fellow actress Jennifer Anniston earned the two ladies USD$1.2 million for each of the show’s 10 episodes. That’s a total of USD$12 million (around PHP689 million)!

As for Little Fires Everywhere, which Witherspoon starred in and produced herself, reportedly made both her and co-star Kerry Washington $1.1 million per episode. And with 8 episodes in the series, that’s about USD$9 million each (around PHP517 million).

Reese’s Book Club x Hello Sunshine

Reese’s Book Club x Hello Sunshine is a specially-curated book club where Witherspoon announces a new book pick every month on her Instagram. Just like Hello Sunshine, the book club aims to drive women’s stories forward.

To date, the book club has over 2.4 million followers on Instagram and over 300,000 followers on Facebook. What’s more, they have partnered with companies like Buick (to create an app and podcast) and coffee shop Lavazza, and have even introduced their own line of merchandise and curated boxes.

Short-form Web Series on Social Media

Catering to the social media crowd, specifically those within the realms of Instagram and Facebook, Hello Sunshine released three short-form unscripted series in 2018: Handmade*Mostly, Turning Point, and Meet My Mom. These unscripted series focus on female successes and stories—straight from the people themselves.

Podcasts

Not one to miss out on what’s trending, Hello Sunshine began launching podcasts as early as 2018. It first was titled My Best Break-Up, which is hosted by Irish comedian Maeve Higgins. Soon after, other titles joined the ranks, like How It Is and And Especially You, which are still running to this day.

The Secret? Royalties.

With all these projects, how does one keep making money? It all boils down to royalties. And take note, this is very much different from the money earned after doing the project.

Defined as “an amount paid by a third party to an owner of a product or patent for the use of that product or patent,” royalties can be likened to passive income. It practically grows by itself and as the owner, you don’t need to do anything about it!

In Witherspoon’s case, this includes getting money from the shows and the content that her production company makes. Take her book club for example. With this avenue in place, the opportunity is open for Witherspoon to contact these publishers—not just for her book club to read and review them, but also to secure exclusive rights to make them into films or shows. This means producing the shows through her company, which guarantees her a share in the profits.

But that’s not all. These shows will be aired on streaming sites like Netflix, Apple TV+, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video, which means that whenever these shows are watched, Witherspoon gets a cut in the form of royalties. It all goes back to her and her book club in what is called a Virtuous Circle, or simply, a “recurring cycle of events [wherein] the result of each one increases the beneficial effect of the next.”

All this, however, can be achieved by having a subscription base. Subscriptions to streaming sites provide royalties when shows are watched, while subscribers to Witherspoon’s book club generate opinions as to which book should be made into a film or series. It all comes full circle.

Key Takeaways

Achieving even a fraction of what Reese Witherspoon did is not something everyone can do. But from it, come lessons that aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners can learn from. In this case, the first lesson lies in exploring passive income. Royalties earned by themselves, even without effort. These can be secured usually through self-made works or rights to works that will be produced into consumable media.

Next is to create a multi-faceted business—a well-oiled machine that can almost entirely function on its own. Hello Sunshine, for example, is foremost known as a production house. But by creating its book club, it has secured other means to get content to produce through books and stories that Witherspoon and her team love. And this is content that they don’t even have to make themselves, from scratch!

And finally, the key is to work smart. Make do with what is readily available. Witherspoon, for example, took advantage of the popularity of streaming sites to host her shows. This guaranteed not only a strong viewership and a strong presence but also generated passive income. By taking all these to heart, maybe, in our own way, we can be the next Hello Sunshine.