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Pay · 39-3021

Motion Picture Projectionists earn $38,270 a year at the midpoint

Pay in this work stretches a long way: the lowest tenth earn about $23,390, the highest tenth about $88,310, and the middle sits at $38,270.

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$38,270median a year · United States
$18.40an hour $51,480average 1,480people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$30,04025th $38,270median $77,73075th
$23,39010th percentile $88,31090th percentile
$30,040a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$82,260best-paying state · New York
$22,750lowest-paying state · Tennessee
+115%top state against the national median
  • Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
  • What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
  • The annual figure is arithmetic. For hourly occupations the annual figure is the hourly rate times 2080 hours. It is a calculation, not observed earnings: part time is the norm in retail and food service.
  • Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
  • Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”

State matters a lotThe same job pays $82,260 in New York and $22,750 in Tennessee — a gap of $59,510 a year.

Motion picture projectionist earnings, from starting pay to the best-paid 10%

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Ranked 715 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 9% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 713 Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers $38,300
  2. 714 Orderlies $38,290
  3. 715 Motion Picture Projectionists $38,270
  4. 716 Barbers $38,210
  5. 717 Textile Bleaching and Dyeing Machine Operators and Tenders $38,180

Motion picture projectionist wages in each state

The 9 states where the most people do this work, of 12 with a published figure: their medians range by 3.62 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
New York $82,260 $36,200 $36,200 — $99,400 270
Illinois $78,990 $67,990 $67,990 — $87,730 —
California $74,840 $34,470 $34,470 — $134,010 190
Washington $39,070 $34,670 $34,670 — $59,630 60
Ohio $36,870 $23,460 $23,460 — $46,620 50
Texas $31,160 $26,470 $26,470 — $37,740 40
Pennsylvania $29,850 $23,580 $23,580 — $34,550 40
Iowa $23,210 $21,250 $21,250 — $41,600 100
Tennessee $22,750 $18,540 $18,540 — $39,890 90

Resumes for motion picture projectionists

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  • Monitored operations to ensure that standards for sound and image projection quality are met.
  • Started projectors and opened shutters to project images onto screens.
  • Opened and closed facilities according to rules and schedules.

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This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

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Motion picture projectionist pay rate, hourly and yearly

Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.

$38,272a year

Adjacent work, and what it pays

Occupations in the same group of the federal classification — the usual next steps, or the ones beside this one.

Motion Picture Projectionists$38,270
Gambling and Sports Book Writers and Runners$34,980−$3,290 Ushers, Lobby Attendants, and Ticket Takers$32,910−$5,360 Entertainment Attendants and Related Workers, All Other$32,640−$5,630 Amusement and Recreation Attendants$32,150−$6,120

Questions people ask

What is a motion picture projectionist’s yearly income?

A motion picture projectionist makes a median of $38,270 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $30,040 and $77,730.

What is a motion picture projectionist’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $18.40 an hour; the average is $51,480 a year.

What is the starting pay for a motion picture projectionist?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $30,040 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $23,390.

Which state pays motion picture projectionists the most?

New York, with a median of $82,260 a year.

How many people work as motion picture projectionists?

About 1,480 in the United States — number 715 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Work that pays about the same

Median pay within $90 of what motion picture projectionists earn — $38,270 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations