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Hollywood's Biggest Earners: The Forbes List

Hollywood's Biggest Earners: The Forbes List
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Hollywood's Biggest Earners: The Forbes List

By David Weiner

4:30 PM PST, December 6, 2011

It's no surprise that Twilight stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson are among Hollywood's biggest earners, alongside such mainstay stars as Robert Downey Jr. and Johnny Depp. See who else topped the Forbes list!

Forbes explains their numerology: "We used data gathered for our annual Celebrity 100 list to calculate each star's estimated earnings on each film (including up-front pay and any earnings from the movie's box-office receipts and first-year sales of DVDs). We then looked at each movie's estimated budget (not including marketing costs, which are susceptible to accounting chicanery) and box-office and DVD earnings to figure out an operating income for each film. We added up each star's compensation on his or her last three films and the operating income on those films, and divided the total operating income by the star's total compensation to come up with a return-on-investment number. The final number represents an average of how much a studio earns for every dollar paid."

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Johnny Depp

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$12.48 million

Meryl Streep

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$13.54 million

Cate Blanchett

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$15.17 million

Matt Damon

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$15.83 million

Robert Downey Jr.

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$18.74 million

Shia LaBeouf

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$29.40 million

Daniel Radcliffe

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$34.24 million

Robert Pattinson

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$39.43 million

Anne Hathaway

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$45.67 million

Kristen Stewart

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It's no surprise that Twilight stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson are among Hollywood's biggest earners, alongside such mainstay stars as Robert Downey Jr. and Johnny Depp. See who else topped the Forbes list!

Forbes explains their numerology: "We used data gathered for our annual Celebrity 100 list to calculate each star's estimated earnings on each film (including up-front pay and any earnings from the movie's box-office receipts and first-year sales of DVDs). We then looked at each movie's estimated budget (not including marketing costs, which are susceptible to accounting chicanery) and box-office and DVD earnings to figure out an operating income for each film. We added up each star's compensation on his or her last three films and the operating income on those films, and divided the total operating income by the star's total compensation to come up with a return-on-investment number. The final number represents an average of how much a studio earns for every dollar paid."



Kristen Stewart: $55.83 million

tags:

  • Matt Damon
  • Meryl Streep
  • Cate Blanchett
  • Daniel Radcliffe
  • Johnny Depp
  • Kristen Stewart
  • Robert Pattinson

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