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‘The Rock’ Becomes Hollywood’s Highest Paid Actor

By Sahash Khanal

From the archive: published Aug 26, 2016, 10 years ago. Details may have changed since.

Dwayne ‘The Rock” Johnson has officially established himself as the King of Hollywood. The Rock topped Forbes Magazine’s 2016 list of the world’s highest-paid actors having earned a total of $64.5 million. This is almost double of what he had made in 2015. With this, Dwayne has taken the title of the world’s best paid actor from last year’s topper, Robert Downey Jr.

The former WWE superstar made his money from the upfront fees he received for movies including Fast 8, Central Intelligence, and Baywatch, where he is set to play the role of Mitch Buchannon. Having established himself as the new age action hero of Hollywood, most of Johnson’s films have become massively successful, including the Fast and Furious franchise and last year’s San Andreas. This has seen his quote increase in recent years. But what does ‘The Rock” think about his success? Well, he had apparently summed up his formula for Box Office success in a 2012 interview with Forbes.

“I can kick ass better than anyone on the planet, and I have a decent smile.”

Dwayne Johnson gained mainstream fame in the late 90s as The Rock in the World Wrestling Federation’s Attitude era. Dwayne is a third-generation wrestler, the first one in the WWE history. He was one of the most popular wrestlers in the franchise between the years 1996 and 2004. He continued making sporadic appearances between then and 2011, when he finally returned back to the ring as a part-time wrestler. This went on between 2011 and 2013. Today, The Rock continues to make sporadic non-wrestling appearances for WWE.

Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock at Wrestlemania XXX.
Johnson’s first leading film role was 2002’s The Scorpion King,for which he was paid a world record fee for an actor in his debut lead role, at $5.5 million. He has since gone on to act in several widely successful films. His films have made billions in the box office, and he has gained a reputation for being able to save failing movie franchises, the stand out examples being the Fast and Furiousfranchise and the Journey to the Center of the Earthfranchise .
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is the highest paid actor in the world.
He was the King of the WWF/WWE franchise in the late 90s and early 2000s. And with his latest accomplishment, he has established himself as the new King of Hollywood. Also, The Rock is already a WWE legend. And there is no doubt that Dwayne Johnson is a Hollywood legend in the making.

Second in Forbes ‘ 2016 list of the world’s best paid actors is Jackie Chan, who made $61 million last year, mostly from Chinese Films. Matt Damon saw a 120 percent boost in his income thanks to a success of The Martian and came in third with $55 million. Tom Cruise came in close at number 4, having raked in $53 million, while Johnny Depp came in fifth having earned $48 million last year. Depp’s earnings do not seem to have been affected by the saga of a tense divorce with his wife Amber Heard. The couple reached a $7 million divorce settlement in August, and Forbes projects Depp’s earnings to plummet next year.

Last year’s best paid actor, Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr, has dropped down to Number 8, having made $33 million. Harrison Ford returned to the list for the first time since 2009, following the success of the latest Star Wars movie The Force Awakens. This year’s winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor, Leonardo Di Caprio came in at number 15, having raked in $27 million. Di Caprio won the award for his performance in The Revenant, 22 years after he was first nominated for his performance in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. Also, four Bollywood actors made the list, Shahrukh Khan (#8, tied), Akshay Kumar (#10, tied), Salman Khan (#14) and Amitabh Bhachan (#18). Jennifer Lawrence topped the list of the world’s highest paid actresses, having raked in $46 million last year.

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