
Step aside, The Rock: A new actor is cooking the highest salary in cinema.
Forbes has released their list of the highest paid actors of 2017, and Mark Wahlberg has somehow come out on top with a whopping $68 million (AUD$86.2 million). The World’s Okayest Actor got the top spot through huge pay checks from his work on Transformers: The Last Knight and Daddy’s Home 2, as well as a sponsorship deal with American telco AT&T and flogging his family’s burger business in the incredibly titled reality TV show Wahlburgers. Seriously, what a name.
That said, between his work on Baywatch, the Fast and the Furious franchise, Jumanji, and TV series Ballers, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is still making hefty bank with $65 million (AUD$82.4 million). His Fast and the Furious co-star, Vin Diesel, came in third with $54.5 million (AUD$69 million). Which is even more impressive when you consider that his second-most notable movie role is a motion-captured tree that only says three words.
On the topic of superheroes, it appears that donning a cape and cowl is the safest bet towards earning the big movie bucks. Almost half of the top twenty list is made of actors who play cinematic heroes, including Iron Man, Thor, Deadpool, Captain America, Star Lord, and The Hulk. Although if you are looking towards a career in Bollywood, you might still be able to make bank: three of India‘s biggest film stars take spots 8 to 10.
Unfortunately, this list only further illustrates the gender wage gap in Hollywood. Wahlberg makes almost three times as much as the highest paid film actress, Emma Stone. Furthermore, Stone, Jennifer Lawrence and Jennifer Aniston are the only three actress who broke $20 million last year – the threshold beaten by the top 16 highest-paid male actors, including Emma’s La La Land co-star Ryan Gosling.
Check out the full list below (all amounts in US dollars).
- Mark Wahlberg $68 Million
- Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson $65 Million
- Vin Diesel $54.5 Million
- Adam Sandler $50.5 Million
- Jackie Chan $49 Million
- Robert Downey Jr $48 Million
- Tom Cruise $43 Million
- Shah Rukh Khan $38 Million
- Salman Khan $37 Million
- Ashkay Kumar $35.5 Million
- Chris Hemsworth $31.5 Million
- Tom Hanks $31 Million
- Samuel L Jackson $30.5 Million
- Ryan Gosling $29 Million
- Ryan Reynolds $21.5 million
- Matt Damon $21 million
- Jeremy Renner $19 million
- Chris Evans $18 Million
- Chris Pratt $17 million
- Mark Ruffalo $13 Million