George Clooney Named This Year’s Highest-Paid Actor, Earning $239 Million This Year
It’s safe to say that George Clooney had a fantastic year.
Today, the actor earned the top spot on Forbes‘ list of highest-paid actors raking in a whopping $239 million between June 1, 2017, and June 1, 2018. Of course, that’s pre-tax, but it’s still not too shabby for just a year’s worth of work. Clooney can thank his big pay day mostly in part to the sale of his mega-popular Tequila brand, Casamigos, to spirits giant Diageo.
A huge chunk, $233 million, of Clooney’s earnings came from the sale of Casamigos while the remaining $6 million was from endorsements and movie earnings. According to the NY Times, Clooney and his partners Rande Gerber and Mike Meldman founded the company in 2013 only to turn around and sell it for “$700 million in cash upfront and up to $300 million more if it hits sales targets over the next decade.”
That means that Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson came in second place this year, though people shouldn’t feel too sorry for him because he still raked in $124 million pretax. Johnson appeared in a few blockbusters this year including Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. The Rock says that his social media presence has assisted him to earn a bigger payday, helping him with contract negotiations to earn an extra seven figures, he says.
This is an astronomical amount of money. https://t.co/6cfFDXjQdu
— Men's Health Mag (@MensHealthMag) August 22, 2018
“Social media has become the most critical element of marketing a movie for me. I have established a social media equity with an audience around the world that there’s a value in what I’m delivering to them.”
At No. 3 came veteran Robert Downey Jr. who earned $81 million pretax. The actor starred in hits like Spider-Man: Homecoming and Avengers: Infinity War. At four was Downey Jr.’s Avenger‘s co-star, Chris Hemsworth, who earned $64.5 million. This was Hemsworth’s highest-earning year in his career.
Jackie Chan earned a spot at No. 5 with earnings of $45.5 million after starring in six films and cashing in on a ton of endorsement deals. Will Smith came in at No. 6 with $42 million in earnings and Bollywood star Akshay Kuma raked in $40.5 million.
Rounding out the top 10 are Adam Sandler, Chris Evans, and Salman Khan. Collectively, the men raked in an impressive $748.5 million.
As far as actresses go, here is the top 10 list for celebrity females:
- Scarlett Johansson – $40.5m
- Angelina Jolie – $28m
- Jennifer Aniston – $19.5m
- Jennifer Lawrence – $18m
- Reese Witherspoon – $16.5m
- Mila Kunis – $16m
- Julia Roberts – $13m
- Cate Blanchett – $12.5m
- Melissa McCarthy – $12m
- Gal Gadot – $10m
According to Forbes, last year the top earning male was Mark Wahlberg with $68 million while Emma Stone was the top-earning female with $26 million.
