The teenagers of Stranger Things might spend their time fighting monsters on screen, but off-screen they’re earning blockbuster paychecks worthy of the risk. For Millie Bobby Brown in particular—who stars as Eleven in the science fiction series—the show has been nothing short of financially life-changing.
Brown, now 21, has amassed a reported $20 million net worth thanks to a dramatic salary climb.
When Stranger Things first premiered in 2016, Netflix was paying her between $10,000 and $30,000 per episode. By the show’s third season, her paycheck had soared to $250,000 an episode. And for the final season, which began airing late last month, Brown’s salary has reportedly been close to $300,000 an episode.
Beyond the hit series, the streaming service paid Brown $10 million in 2019 for her second Enola Holmes film—the highest up-front salary ever for an actor under 20, according to Vanity Fair. And while Brown’s exact total deal with Netflix is unknown, it is “ridiculously lucrative,” Puck reported. She’s also starred in major franchises including Godzilla vs. Kong, further adding to her income.
Turning monster-fighting fame into a booming business empire
Off-screen, the British actress has built a fast-growing business empire. She founded her cosmetics and fashion line, Florence by Mills, in 2019. While Brown initially enlisted a company called Beach House Group to help manage it, she became a majority owner just one year later.
When the brand’s Wildly Me perfume launched online in August 2023, there were 12,700 fans signed up and waiting to buy bottles that range from $26 to $65. Now sold at Ulta Beauty, Walmart, and Nordstrom, the brand has since expanded from makeup and fragrances to sleepwear, luggage, and even coffee.
Today, @florencebymills has a staggering 3.4 million followers on Instagram alone.
On top of that, she’s also forged partnerships with top luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Calvin Klein, and Pandora, proving her time battling supernatural beasts has translated into serious commercial power.
Multimillionaire Brown still shops at Target and uses her parents’ Netflix
Despite her mouth-watering paychecks, Brown insists she lives frugally—a habit shaped, she said, by a childhood where her parents had “no money” and couldn’t afford to buy a home.
“I have a money thing where I’m very conscious about money,” she said on the Call Her Daddy podcast in March. “When I do spend money on something, I have to call my parents, I have to think about it, I don’t just buy it right away.”
Her first real splurge after the Netflix checks started rolling in? A pair of Chanel sunglasses–purchased only after her parents encouraged her to go for it.
And even after marrying into a wealthy family (she tied the knot with Jon Bon Jovi’s son, Jake Bongiovi, in 2024), Brown’s spending habits haven’t changed.
“I’ll be like ‘Oh, I need socks,’ and he’ll be like ‘Let’s go to Prada,‘” Brown said to Alex Cooper. “And I’m like ‘Let’s go to Target.’”
″’He loves to go shopping,” she added. “He will refuse to pack a suitcase because he likes to go shopping in the place we’re going, that’s what he does. Whereas Amazon Basics, I love that.”
Even when it comes to streaming, Brown still counts her pennies. Instead of paying the $7.99-a-month fee to watch her own Netflix shows, she continues to use her parents’ account.
“I’m still using my parents’ account,” she said on British music show Capital. “I kind of refuse to pay for the subscription because my parents pay, and I’m still a child in my eyes, and in their eyes. So yeah, I’m part of the family deal.”