Mark Wahlberg Surpasses Dwayne Johnson As The Highest Paid Actor Of 2017
It pays to be a Transformers star. Forbes has released their annual list of the highest paid actors in the biz, with The Last Knight actor Mark Wahlberg topping the bunch and knocking Dwayne Johnson out of the number one spot.
Wahlberg's $68 million paycheck for the year came in part from the Transformers franchise and in part from the upcoming Daddy's Home 2, which he'll star in opposite Will Ferrell. Transformers: The Last Knight was a domestic disappointment, but it still did big bucks overseas, so Paramount likely isn't regretting Wahlberg's high paycheck. Still, despite the influx of cash, the actor says that he isn't looking to do any more Transformers movies– at least, so he says right now.
Although Johnson was bumped out of the top spot, fans need not worry for the star, who took number two on the list with a $65 million haul. Like Wahlberg, this paycheck came in part from a domestic flop– Baywatch, which was trashed by critics and drowned at the box office. However, the actor also has high-paying roles in the The Fate of the Furious, the upcoming Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and on the HBO series Ballers, which apparently nets him $650,000 per episode. (via Variety)
The number three spot went to Johnson's Fate of the Furious co-star Vin Diesel, who took home a hefty paycheck for his lead role in the long-running franchise. His $54.5 million paycheck, a 55 percent increase from his earnings last year, also includes roles in xXx: The Return of Xander Cage and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, where he used some impressive falsetto skills to lend his voice to Baby Groot.
Fourth place went to Adam Sandler, whose deal with Netflix brought in $40.5 million, an impressive number considering the hefty thumping many of his streaming films have taken from critics. The actor doesn't need any sort of lift financially, but he will get one soon with critics for The Meyerowitz Stories, a film festival darling which has already brought in Oscar buzz.
The fifth spot went to Jackie Chan, who brought in $49 million thanks to his popular Chinese films, as well as his upcoming action drama The Foreigner. Chan is one of a few non-U.S. actors to make the list, which also includes Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, and Akshay Kumar. Newcomers to this year's list include Ryan Reynolds, Ryan Gosling, Jeremy Renner, and Mark Ruffalo, most of whom were brought on by their superhero roles.
The list highlights Hollywood's oft-discussed pay disparity, with the top 10 highest earning actors earning nearly three times as much as the highest-earning women. Emma Stone was one of just three actresses on the list of women to top $20 million, while 16 actors managed to hit that number. Forbes attributes this at least in part to the roles available, with Gal Gadot one of the few women to have a prominent role in the superhero movies that are taking over the box office. The outlet also notes that women make up just 28.7 percent of all speaking roles in movies and only a quarter of roles for characters over the age of 40.