David Krumholtz says The Santa Clause pays him $150 a year
David Krumholtz says the The Santa Clause franchise now pays him about $150 a year. The actor, who played Bernard opposite Tim Allen, says the checks have shrunk as the movie has stayed in regular rotation.
Residuals Shrink Over Time
Krumholtz told Page Six, “They’re minimal because the movie plays so much.” He added, “This is how residuals work: Every time it plays, you make less. It’s a grade scale.”
He said the first few years after the 1994 release were better, when his residual checks were “good.” Now, by his own count, the franchise brings in “150 bucks a year.”
Bernard, Then and Now
Krumholtz played Bernard, the head elf to Tim Allen’s Santa Claus, in The Santa Clause and its 2002 sequel. He did not reprise the role in the 2006 third installment, then made a cameo in the 2022 Disney+ follow-up series The Santa Clauses.
That return came after a long stretch in which he said his ego would not let him embrace Bernard. In 2022, he said, “For the longest time, my ego wouldn’t allow me to be associated with the character.” He also said, “I’ll admit I resented [The Santa Clause] for a good portion of my 20s and 30s, but only having recently had children myself, I thought, ‘There’s something sort of worth emulating about Bernard.’ I wish I could be Bernard in a way.”
Oppenheimer Pays More
Krumholtz said his biggest residual checks currently come from his 2023 role in Oppenheimer. He said that work earns him $12.73, which is “enough to buy a hot dog in New York.”
He also said he saved 150 children from a fire on the set of The Santa Clause, and received a bottle of champagne the next day. The numbers here are blunt: a holiday franchise that still runs often is now a tiny income stream, while a far newer film pays even less. For actors, the long tail of residuals can turn a hit into pocket change.
