For top-earning stars like Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds, appearing in movies is one of many ways they reel in their out-sized paydays.
Dwayne Johnson first announced his involvement in Red One on Instagram in June 2021, the first of dozens of posts promoting the movie to his 394 million followers over the course of the next three years, leading up to the movie’s theatrical release last November.
Even after negative critical reception and middling box office performance—$186 million worldwide against a reported $250 million budget—Johnson kept pushing the movie online, and when it debuted on Amazon Prime Video a month later, Red One drew a record 50 million viewers in its opening weekend.
This is what movie stardom looks like in 2025. For the top tier of Hollywood talent, acting in a film has become just one element of a multi-year, multi-platform partnership between a studio and an actor to develop, produce, and most importantly market a project to audiences.
Those who have proven their ability to personally convert fans into customers have become more valuable than ever before. Johnson’s contract for Red One, which included up-front fees for acting and producing—as well as a buyout of back-end participation for both roles—will pay him an estimated $50 million, believed to be the highest fee-plus-buyout total in history for a single movie.
When combined with Johnson’s impressive deal for Moana 2 and his catalog of older titles, he earned an estimated $88 million last year (after paying fees to his agent and lawyer), making him the highest-paid actor of 2024.
Right on his heels is Ryan Reynolds, who, similarly, was the lead producer, co-writer and star of the year’s biggest live-action theatrical hit, Deadpool & Wolverine. He even produced commercials for the movie through his marketing agency, Maximum Effort. Reynolds’ busy year was rewarded with an estimated $85 million (after fees), though in the end 2024 might be remembered for the swarm of lawsuits between his wife, Blake Lively, and It Ends With Us filmmaker Justin Baldoni, which have seen his name littered throughout court documents.
Close behind Johnson and Reynolds, in third place, is another power promoter—Kevin Hart, whose unrivaled volume of self-produced movies, TV shows, podcasts and stand-up comedy continues to reinforce his status as the hardest-working man in show business, and brought in an estimated $81 million.
Those three multi-hyphenates earned the same amount as the rest of the top 10 combined, lapping veteran movie stars like Brad Pitt ($32 million), Nicole Kidman ($31 million) and 2023’s highest-paid actor, Adam Sandler ($26 million)—none of whom come with their own built-in marketing machine.
Still, it pays to be an established hitmaker from a previous generation. The average age of the top 20, who combined for more than $730 million in earnings last year, is a little over 54 years old. These actors benefit not only from high salaries set by the precedent of past hits, they continue to receive sizable checks each year from those old projects, whether it be TV shows—Forbes estimates Jerry Seinfeld (No. 4 this year) pockets $30 million each year for creating Seinfeld—or decades’ worth of movies. For example, Matt Damon (No. 16) earned an estimated $8 million last year in profit participations from his back catalog, which includes the Bourne and Ocean’s franchises.
That has made it difficult for new stars to enter the top echelon of pay in Hollywood. Last year’s top 20 doesn’t include any actors in their 20s or 30s (the youngest is Scarlett Johansson, 40, at No. 19), even after a breakout year for young stars like Sydney Sweeney, Glen Powell and Zendaya. Their fees have jumped for future projects, say representatives around Hollywood, and they are among the hardest actors to book right now, but the consensus is that they will need to continue to prove that the success came as a direct result of their billing in order to achieve top earnings in future years.
Even Timothée Chalamet, 29, considered by the industry to be best positioned for mega-stardom, fell well short of this year’s list because his Oscar-nominated role as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown was negotiated years ago, before Wonka and Dune 2 turned him into a household name.
Unlike last year’s one-two punch of Barbie and Oppenheimer, most of this year’s fortunes were made away from the box office. Six of the top 10 highest-grossing movies of 2024 were animated, an area of the business where actors generally don’t receive high salaries.
With theatrical releases appearing increasingly risky, A-list talent instead flocked to streaming services, where so-called buyout deals are still the norm, paying talent a premium flat fee. In a competitive situation in which Apple, Amazon and Netflix are all vying for the same star-driven package, an actor might receive a total compensation well over the still-standard $20 million up-front fee for theatrical movies, as was the case with Pitt (No. 6) and George Clooney (No. 7) for Wolfs.
Whether that trend continues, or whether the industry’s chants of “survive to ‘25” are rewarded with a box office renaissance this year, there remains an ironclad belief among agents, managers, lawyers and studio executives that movie stars are always going to be essential to the future of Hollywood.
Ultimately, even more than the money earned, the annual list of the highest-paid actors represents a measure of the control that talent can wield within the industry, and how they choose to use it.
#1. Dwayne Johnson
$88 million ($103 million gross)
The Rock returned to the top of the highest-paid actors list after landing what is believed to be the largest fee-plus-buyout in streaming movie history, an estimated $50 million to star in Amazon’s Red One last year. And when Moana 2 pivoted from a TV series to a theatrical release, he negotiated for a percentage of the movie’s profits as an executive producer, an unprecedented deal for voice actors in Disney animation. After the movie grossed over $1 billion at the box office, Johnson, 52, made what one agent calls “an ungodly amount of money.”
#2. Ryan Reynolds
$85 million ($100 million gross)
Reynolds was the lead producer, co-writer and star of the biggest live action movie of the year in Deadpool & Wolverine, which grossed more than $1.3 billion worldwide. But that was only part of a jam-packed year that included starring in John Krasinski’s IF, producing a new season of Welcome To Wrexham for Hulu, and depending on which version of the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni lawsuits you believe, reworking the script for his wife’s movie It Ends With Us.
#3. Kevin Hart
$81 million ($108 million gross)
Nobody had a more diversified entertainment slate in 2024 than Hart, who starred in a theatrical release (Borderlands), a Netflix film (Lift), an Amazon Prime movie (Die Hart 2: Die Harter), a series on The Roku Channel (Die Hart season three), a series on Peacock (Fight Night), the roast of Tom Brady on Netflix, a weekly podcast for Spotify (Gold Minds), not to mention 90 stand-up comedy shows. Add in commercial campaigns with DraftKings and Chase—not counted among his 2024 earnings—and you basically can’t turn on any screen without seeing the 45-year-old comedian.
#4. Jerry Seinfeld
$60 million ($70 million gross)
The 70-year-old Seinfeld, named a billionaire by Forbes last year, remains active on the stand-up circuit while his eponymous sitcom continues to bring in eight-figures every year. During the pandemic, he wrote a script spoofing the invention of Pop-Tarts, Unfrosted, which he eventually directed and starred in for Netflix last year.
#5. Hugh Jackman
$50 million ($66 million gross)
After the emotional send-off of his Wolverine character in 2017’s Logan, nothing short of a massive payday and the opportunity to work with his good friend Ryan Reynolds would have convinced the 56-year-old Jackman to don the adamantium claws once again. But Deadpool & Wolverine will likely end up being the most lucrative movie of his career.
#6. Brad Pitt
$32 million ($42 million gross)
After pulling Wolfs (costarring his good friend George Clooney) from a theatrical release last year—opting to show it directly on AppleTV+— Apple is betting the house on Pitt’s 2025 movie F1, in theaters this summer. Meanwhile, his production company, Plan B, continues to be a juggernaut both at the box office (with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice) and on the awards circuit (backing longshot Best Picture nominee Nickel Boys).
#7. George Clooney
$31 million ($37 million gross)
Clooney publicly denied the reporting that he and Brad Pitt were paid $35 million each for the spy comedy Wolfs—which he called “bad for our industry if that’s what people think is the standard bearer for salaries”—but Apple had to outbid multiple suitors for the project in 2021. And compared to Clooney’s directorial efforts or Pitt’s more awards-inclined projects, one dealmaker tells Forbes the movie was “definitely a for-profit endeavor for them.”
#8. Nicole Kidman
$31 million ($41 million gross)
The reigning queen of AMC Theaters has become one of the most bankable stars in the TV miniseries space, starring in one for Netflix (The Perfect Couple), one for Paramount+ (Lioness), and one for Amazon (Expats) last year, making more than $1 million per episode in each. Add to that two movies featuring romances with much younger men—Babygirl and A Family Affair—and the 57-year-old Kidman is the highest-paid actress of 2024.
#9. Adam Sandler
$26 million ($35 million gross)
Sandler’s overall deal with Netflix is unrivaled in the industry, allowing him to make both big commercial projects like the upcoming Happy Gilmore 2 or more modest fare like 2024’s Spaceman, and still receive top dollar. And the back catalog of last year’s highest-paid actor remains on the platform, racking up hundreds of millions of hours watched each year.
#10. Will Smith
$26 million ($30 million gross)
Opinions around Hollywood differ as to whether the 56-year-old Oscar winner is fully “back” after The Slap Seen ‘Round The World in 2022, but all agree that returning to the character that first made him a star was as savvy move. And 2024’s Bad Boys: Ride or Die was a hit, one of less than 20 movies to gross more than $400 million worldwide last year.
#11. Mariska Hargitay
$25 million ($29 million gross)
As the anchor for Dick Wolf’s Law & Order: SVU for more than 20 years and 550 episodes, the 61-year-old Hargitay is the highest-paid actor on television by a wide margin. She earns an estimated $750,000 per episode between acting and producing fees, as well as a slice of the show’s considerable syndication profits.
#12. Channing Tatum
$24 million ($28 million gross)
Despite the box office failure of Fly Me To The Moon, Tatum’s earnings were in the stratosphere last year, as his deal was structured with a straight-to-streaming buyout of back-end participation. The 44-year-old Tatum also starred in Blink Twice, directed by his then-girlfriend Zoe Kravitz, and made a long-rumored (yet short-lived) cameo as Gambit in Deadpool & Wolverine.
#13. Jason Statham
$24 million ($25 million gross)
Statham, 57, has proven to be box office Teflon in recent years, stringing together a series of modest hits playing regular-guy action heroes, including 2024’s The Beekeeper. He can command $20 million or more for such roles, in some cases nearly half of the movie’s production budget, all while operating without the representation of an agent or manager.
#14. Mark Wahlberg
$23 million ($31 million gross)
When Wahlberg isn’t busy running multiple companies and crushing 4 a.m. workouts, the 53-year-old actor divides his efforts on-screen between bigger budget action movies, usually at Netflix, as was the case with last year’s The Union, and more personal independent projects like Arthur The King.
#15. Matt Damon
$23 million ($30 million gross)
Artists Equity, the studio Damon cofounded with his longtime friend and collaborator Ben Affleck, continues to find willing buyers among the streaming services for projects produced by or starring the 54-year-old Oscar winner, including The Instigators for AppleTV+ in 2024. In addition to his up-front fees, Damon owns a piece of his movies’ equity, which sell at a premium price above their production budgets.
#16. John Cena
$23 million ($30 million gross)
Currently on his farewell tour with the WWE, his wrestling home since 2002, the 47-year-old Cena has continued to be a bankable presence in streaming comedies across platforms. In 2024 he starred in Argylle for Apple, Ricky Stanicky for Hulu, and Jackpot! for Amazon, and made appearances in Kevin Hart’s Die Hart 2 and in one episode of The Bear.
#17. Denzel Washington
$23 million ($27 million gross)
A villainous turn in Gladiator II netted another sizable payday, though the 70-year-old Washington will have to do without the laurels of an 11th Oscar nomination, which many Hollywood pundits predicted was coming. He also continues to receive hefty checks from the dozens of hits in his 40-year back catalog.
#18. Jake Gyllenhaal
$22 million ($26 million gross)
Gyllenhaal’s 2024 remake of Road House reportedly faced a choice between a $60 million budget and a theatrical release, or an $85 million budget to go straight to Amazon Prime Video. The latter meant a bigger up-front payday for its 44-year-old star, without the gamble on box office performance. And it wasn’t the only remake Gyllenhaal fronted last year, as Presumed Innocent became a hit series on AppleTV+.
#19. Scarlett Johansson
$21 million ($25 million gross)
In addition to Fly Me To The Moon, which she costarred in with Channing Tatum, the 40-year-old actress lent her distinct voice to the lead role in the animated movie Transformers One. It’s a voice so distinct that Johansson said last May she believes it was copied by OpenAI for its chatbot.
#20. Joaquin Phoenix
$19 million ($22 million gross)
Reprising his Oscar-winning role as The Joker came with the biggest up-front fee of the 50-year-old Phoenix’s career, even though Joker: Folie à Deux became one of the biggest box office bombs of the year.
METHODOLOGY
Estimations were calculated through interviews with agents, lawyers, managers, executives and industry experts, as well as data sources such as IMDBPro and Polestar. The figures represent pretax earnings for the calendar year 2024, minus fees for representation – 10% to agents, 10% to managers and 5% to lawyers, per industry standard, although some actors do not have all three.
Actors were credited for all compensation on projects in the year they were released, despite the fact that often up front fees are paid when a movie is filmed, which could be years in the past, and back-end participation or buyouts are often paid several years into the future.
Additionally, the ranking only includes earnings related to entertainment—acting, producing, directing, or other forms of performance (such as stand-up comedy). Entrepreneurial endeavors not related to entertainment, such as joint ventures, licensing, commercials or social media partnerships, were not counted.
This story was originally published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
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