Photos
Video
RSS
TwitterForbes' Top 10 overpaid stars: Will Ferrell, Tom Cruise and more!
Forbes' released another Top 10 list -- this time of the most overpaid stars in Hollywood. Will Ferrell tops the list. We are shocked.In order to qualify for the Top 10 Overpaid Actors list, each actor had to have appeared in three films in the last five years that opened at at least 500 theaters. It comes as no surprise that Will Ferrel tops the list; it's been awhile since he's had a hit. For every $1 Will Ferrell earns, his movies only earn $3.29.
The #2 spot is a bit of a surprise -- Ewan McGregor. He's not one of the higher-paid stars on the list, which doesn't speak very well for how his movies have done lately. His ratio is $1 to $3.75.
The rest of the Top 5 is Billy Bob Thornton, Eddie Murphy and Ice Cube. Coming in at #6 is Tom Cruise, whose box office draw has dipped sharply in recent years. #7 is the only actress on the list, Drew Barrymore.
The Top 10 is rounded out by Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson and Jim Carrey.
See the Top 10 Overpaid Actors in pictures
Follow Zap2It on Twitter for all your movies, TV and celebrity news
Related
Forbes' Top Male Prime-time Earners
Forbes' Top Female Prime-time Earners
7 Comments
Post a comment
Most talked about posts
Advertisement
Zap2it Twitter Talk Recent posts
I don't get it. If Will Ferrell generates $3.29 for every $1 he's paid, how does that make him overpaid? Doesn't that mean he's actually underpaid since that's $2.29 that is being earned by someone else, i.e., studio, director, etc. rather than by Ferrell?
Now if it were the other way around -- he get's paid $3.29 for every $1 he actually generates -- then he'd be overpaid by $2.29. Am I missing something?
ummm What?, i don't think one star of a movie should get every penny generated by that movie. I think there are other actors, the director, the crew, some profit for the studio, etc....
get it now??
Other stars may be earning $5, $10 or even $15 box office dollars for every dollar they get paid... so when they say "overpaid" they just mean that Will Ferrell etc. get paid a lot of money, but don't have as much box office draw when compared to the stars that are pulling in a higher ratio of box office dollars to their pay...
It's simple. For each actor that made 3 films in the last 5 years that opened at more than 500 theaters, they just compared how much overall that actor was paid to how much his or her films brought in. Compared to what they're getting for most other talent, the studios are getting their least amount of bang for each Ferrell buck. So Ferrell has the highest actor-expense-to-film-earnings ratio -- he gets $1 of every $3.29 his films earned, while the remaining $2.29 has to cover all other expenses and hopefully leave something as profit. That could mean Ferrell is paid lavishly, but I think more likely the studios just never learn and continue to gamble on him with a decent wage even though his movies become financial flops.
A lot of actors also get credit that they don't deserve. I'll use Jennifer Aniston as an eg. here. She got credit for bringing in money in Bruce Almighty. She brought in exactly $0 for that movie, but still gets credit for it.
Will Ferrel is my favorite actor. I think every movie he does is 10x better with him in it. Could be a little hit a miss of late with him branching out slightly.
Step Brothers came out in 2008 and grossed $128 million worldwide plus $58 mil on dvd.