Pop2it: Culture. Celebrity. With a Twist
Follow Zap2it:

Will Ferrell: Still Hollywood's most overpaid actor

will-ferrell-overpaid-gi.jpgWill Ferrell still hasn't shaken off the disaster that was "Land of the Lost" -- at least in terms of his box-office worth.

For the second year in a row, Ferrell ranks first on Forbes magazine's list of the most overpaid actors in Hollywood. According to the mag's number-crunching, his movies in the past five years have earned only $3.35 for every dollar he was paid, the lowest ratio among any of showbiz's biggest earners.

He's in good company too: Other actors on the list include Denzel Washington, Drew Barrymore, Matt Damon and Adam Sandler.

Forbes looked at the 36 highest-earning actors in Hollywood. To qualify, an actor had to have starred in at least three wide-release, live-action movies in the past five years, with a cutoff date of June 1. (Thus, Ferrell's buddy-cop comedy "The Other Guys," which opened in August and has made $160 million worldwide, isn't included.)

The magazine then calculated the estimated earnings per film for each actor, as well as each movie's budget and its earnings from box office, home video and TV sales to come up with the figure for how much a film's studio earned for each dollar it paid an actor. Animated films weren't included on the list, because, as Forbes puts it, "stars tend to take pay cuts, and are not the real draw."

After Ferrell, the 10 most overpaid actors are Eddie Murphy (paid $1 for every $4.45 studios earned on his movies), Washington ($1 for every $5.10), Seth Rogen ($1 for every $6.75), Tom Cruise ($1 for every $7.20), Barrymore ($1 for every $7.45), Damon ($1 for every $8.30), Vince Vaughn ($1 for every $8.35), Sandler ($1 for every $8.45) and Jim Carrey ($1 for every $8.60).

By contrast, "Transformers" star Shia LaBeouf was the best value among the top-earning actors (i.e., he earned relatively small salaries compared to what his movies raked in), earning $81 in profits for studios for every buck he was paid.

Follow Zap2it and Zap2itRick on Twitter and Zap2it on Facebook for the latest TV, movie and celebrity news.

Photo credit: Getty Images
Follow Zap2it on Twitter and Zap2it on Facebook for the latest news and buzz
 
 
 
 
Related pics
Zap2it Elite Sheet Must Reads from the Web's In-Crowd
 

he must have a good agent!

Yea but Denzel Washington is WORTH the money, Ferrell will be a has-been any day now.

im surprised seth roggen nd vinece vaughn is on the list they are about the only 2 currently it guys in hollywood all the other mostly had there prime before so is undersatandble on list and should be meaning move studios should pay top dollar for them

and shia needs a pay raise stdios getting rich off him

This statistic is retarded.

This seems to be a good metric to use on CEO's. I could care less how much the return on a actor is, but many of us have money in the stock market. About the return is much worse for those clowns.

He's not funny at all. I don't know what people see in him. There are many other comedians out there who really make me laugh. I guess I just don't 'get' why he keeps making these movies that not only make no money, but are not funny in the least. Jmho!

looks like he's rolling in it!

Techinically, they shouldn't count Shia LaDouche. He was in the Transformers movies. A monkey with one testicle could have done Shia's part and it would have made the same amount of money.

Well if you DO count "The Other Guys" Will Ferrell suddenly becomes a much better value. Also, to say actors like Adam Sandler, Vince Vaughn, and Jim Carrey are bad values is kind of dishonest. All 3 of these guys are consistent $100 million earners for films in their main genre (comedy).

You can't really count Shia. Not just because of the fact that he's jsut happened to star in two huge blockbusters.

Not once has he opened a movie based on him alone. Think about it: Transformers, Wall Street...did anyone see these films because of Shia? Or because they were/are huge properties?

Zap2it Newsletter
Find it fast
 
 
Featured Partners