Each year Forbes publishes a list of the highest paid movie actors. By ‘actors’ this only includes males (a separate list is produced for ‘actresses’). A the top of the 2016 rankings is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who has become the world’s highest paid actor following his appearances in the movies San Andreas and Central Intelligence. Johnson was paid $64.5 million between June 2015 and June 2016. The payments also include advances for movies yet to be completed, so Johnson’s tally includes payments towards Baywatch and yet another Fast And The Furious movie.
In second place there was no change to last year, with Jackie Chan earning $61 million. Rising to third is Matt Damon. The latest Jason Bourne installment and The Martian awarded the actor $55 million. Tom Cruise came in fourth place with $53 million; and Johnny Depp at fifth with $48 million.
The five highest-paid male actors, according to the BBC, individually earned more than the world’s highest paid female actor, Jennifer Lawrence, who earned $46 million across the equivalent period.
In a sign of how volatile the list can be, last year’s highest paid actor, Robert Downey Jr, fell to ninth place in the list with $33 million. This is because the actor made only one movie in 12 months — Captain America: Civil War.
Each of the movie starts were ‘low’ earners compared with the top 10 list of highest paid celebrities across the same period:
1. Taylor Swift (singer) — $170 million
2. One Direction (pop music) — $110 million
3. James Patterson (Author) — $95 million
4. Dr Phil McGraw (US TV personality) and Cristiano Ronaldo (soccer) — $88 million
6. Kevin Hart (comedian) — $87.5 million
7. Howard Stern (entertainer) — $85 million
8. Lionel Messi (soccer) — $81.5 million
9. Adele (singer) — $80.5 million
10. Rush Limbaugh (entertainer) — $79 million
