Margot Robbie will be cashing in for Barbie for the rest of her life, but last year, Adam Sandler was Hollywood’s highest-paid star. Read how much he came up with and who accompanied him in our ranking.
Hollywood history will remember 2023 as the year of Barbenheimer. Since their release on the same day in July, the Barbie and Oppenheimer films have dominated the box office, award shows and media space. At the recent Academy Awards, Oppenheimer took home seven awards, including best picture, director (Christopher Nolan) or supporting actor (Robert Downey Jr.).
But even with those two blockbusters — Barbie grossed $1.4 billion worldwide and Oppenheimer just shy of a billion — there was still plenty of room for other entertainment last year. And if Netflix’s annual report is anything to go by, it’s that a lot of people have spent an astronomical amount of time watching Adam Sandler movies.
Since signing a $250 million four-film deal with the streaming company in 2014, Sandler, 57, has starred in eight films for Netflix and produced several more through his Happy Madison production company.
Most of his comedies to date have now been licensed for this platform as well. In the first six months of 2023 alone, Netflix subscribers spent more than five hundred million hours watching Sandler’s movies.
Or, as Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos explained when he renewed his collaboration with the actor in 2020: «There’s never enough Sandler.»
Netflix therefore rewarded the prolific prankster with not only one of the most lucrative contracts in the entertainment industry, but also a contract with enormous creative freedom.
Sandler’s three films in 2023 included Murder in Paris with Jennifer Aniston (which is in sixth place this year), which was filmed in Paris and Hawaii. He also released the movie You’re Definitely Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah! starring his wife and daughters and the animated movie Leo.
Combined with his forty-four live stand-up performances across the country, Sandler earned an estimated $73 million last year (after paying his agent, manager and lawyer fees). That’s enough to make him the highest-paid actor of 2023 by a comfortable margin.
In total, the ten highest-paid stars in 2023 earned $449 million.
That revenue came almost entirely from movies, not television, in part because of the writers’ and actors’ strikes that shut down Hollywood for half a year and delayed (or shortened) many TV series, and in part because of the decades-old precedent that the biggest movie stars can one film to get up to twenty million dollars in advance plus a percentage of the profits.
In the long run, the lead role in a blockbuster remains the golden ticket to Hollywood.
Unlike Netflix, which pays actors a premium fee up front and buys out their profit share over the following two years, a theatrical hit can generate money indefinitely — meaning profit-sharing actors have no cap on how much they can ultimately earn.
For example, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, the stars of Barbie, are second and fourth in this year’s Top 10, based only on estimated box office receipts, video-on-demand and the film’s first streaming window.
Their overall reward for performing in this cultural phenomenon will be significantly higher.
«I swear Margot Robbie will be getting Barbie checks for the rest of her life,» says one agent.
Margot Robbie’s success is exceptional in another respect as well. At 33, he is more than a decade younger than the other actors on the list, the average age of the other nine actors is 52.
Older actors benefit from decades of earnings from past hits — like Aniston from Friends — as well as the fact that Hollywood salaries are set by precedent, meaning top stars are expected to be paid to match or exceed what they earned in his last film.
This principle often makes it difficult for younger actors to break into higher positions. The same goes for non-white actors, of whom there is only one in the top ten for 2023 (Denzel Washington at number ten).
It must be said that this was a year in which many of the highest paid black actors did not release a major film. Dwayne «The Rock» Johnson focused on his business ventures such as Teramana tequila and the XFL, while his frequent co-star Kevin Hart focused more on his stand-up comedy.
And Will Smith, once the king of summer blockbusters, is still trying to mend his image after a face-off at the 2022 Oscars.
Eddie Murphy, Jamie Foxx and Samuel L. Jackson have done most of their work on streaming services, where they are paid big upfront but the potential profit is limited. Still, blockbusters starring black, Asian, and Hispanic actors are still few and far between.
“The reality is that Hollywood is still predominantly white,” says Darnell Hunt, executive vice chancellor and chancellor of the University of California and author of the Hollywood Diversity Report.
“There are only a few actors of color who can command those kinds of salaries, and they’ve been able to command them. However, the problem is how many actors have been given the opportunity to reach such a salary,» he adds.
Looking at the current calendar of premieres, it is quite likely that the list of the highest paid actors in 2024 will look completely different.
Most movies are years in the making, so while Robbie, Tom Cruise (3rd this year) and Leonardo DiCaprio (7th) move on to their next projects, 2024 will see Smith in Bad Boys 4, Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop : Axel F and Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool 3.
Several members of Dune 2’s impressive young cast will also appear in multiple films next year, including Zendaya, Austin Butler and Anya Taylor-Joy. In addition, the cast stars in blockbuster TV shows such as Yellowstone, Larry, Taming and the Bear.
In addition to high salaries, last year’s highest-paid stars won more power in the film industry, especially the ability to negotiate even more favorable contract terms for their next projects. In an industry where salary can rise or fall based on each performance.
This list is an overview of who will be the most influential in Hollywood in 2024.
- Adam Sandler — $73 million ($97 million gross)
- Margot Robbie — $59 million ($78 million gross)
- Tom Cruise — $45 million ($53 million gross)
- Ryan Gosling — $43 million ($50 million gross)
- Matt Damon — $43 million ($50 million gross)
- Jennifer Aniston — $42 million ($56 million gross)
- Leonardo DiCaprio — $41 million ($48 million gross)
- Jason Statham — $41 million ($48 million gross)
- Ben Affleck — $38 million ($45 million gross)
- Denzel Washington — $24 million ($28 million gross)
Methodology
Estimates were calculated based on interviews with agents, lawyers, managers, executives and industry experts, as well as data sources such as IMDBPro and Polestar.
The figures represent pre-tax earnings for calendar year 2023 after deducting representation fees — ten percent to agents, ten percent to managers and five percent to lawyers, according to industry standards, although some actors don’t have all three.
Actors were credited for the projects in the year they were released, although royalties are often paid up front when the film is made, which can be several years back, and retroactive participation is often paid several years later.
Additionally, only income related to entertainment – acting, producing, directing or other forms of performing (eg stand-up comedy) – is included in the rankings. Business activities not related to entertainment, such as cosmetic brands or spirits brands, were not included.
