Everything You Need to Know About Hollywood’s Top Earners

One week after Forbes released their annual list of Hollywood’s highest paid actresses, they told us who the top earning actors were. You’ll never guess which group earned more. Or, you definitely will. Turns out, continuing their winning streak, men out-earned women. By a lot.

Emma Stone’s $26 million paycheque didn’t even come close to Mark Wahlberg’s impressive $68 million. Let that sit in: in 2017, the highest-paid actor in Hollywood made 2.6 times what the highest-paid actress did. When you compare the two lists as a whole, things look even worse. The 10 top-paid actors cashed a combined $488.5 million, almost 3 times their female counterparts’ collective $172.5 million.

As Forbes notes, this disparity has a lot to do with the jobs available: the lead roles in top-earning blockbuster franchises and superhero flicks almost always go to men. Wahlberg didn’t become the highest-paid actor working on critically acclaimed indie films; his poorly received role in Transformers: The Last Knight earned him his big bucks.

Following behind him on the list are Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, last year’s highest-paid actor, who pulled in $65 million, and Vin Diesel, whose role in eighth instalment of the Fast and Furious earned him $54.5 million. What do these top three guys have in common? They have big muscles. Also, truth be told,  they look pretty good next to explosions. Which, apparently, is how you make a lot of money these days.

“There are simply fewer parts for women that pay the sizeable backend profits that result in leading men’s large paydays, or the franchise sequels that permit aggressive negotiation for favourable deals,” Natalie Robehmed, Forbes associate editor, told The Telegraph. “According to a 2016 study, women comprise just 28.7% of all speaking roles in movies and only a quarter of roles for characters over the age of 40 - an ageism and lack of opportunity not facing Hollywood’s leading men. Until there are an equal number of high-paying roles, there will continue to be an inequality in the paychecks of Tinseltown’s very richest.”

The wage gap is bleak, but there is a redeeming light in Forbes list of grossly overpaid dudes: at least it was diverse. Last week’s round-up of highest paid actresses was comprised solely of American white women, while the men’s list includes three Bollywood stars, Jackie Chan, and multiple bi-racial actors. At least there’s progress somewhere.

Here’s Forbes full list of Hollywood’s top-earning stars.

1. Mark Wahlberg, $68 million 2. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, $65 million 3. Vin Diesel, $54.5 million 4. Adam Sandler, $50.5 million 5. Jackie Chan, $49 million 6. Robert Downey, Jr., $48 million 7. Tom Cruise, $43 million 8. Shah Rukh Khan, $38 million 9. Salman Khan, $37 million 10. Akshay Kumar, $35.5 million 11. Chris Hemsworth, $31.5 million 12. Tom Hanks, $31 million 13. Samuel L. Jackson, $30.5 million 14. Ryan Gosling, $29 million 15. Emma Stone, $26 million 16. Jennifer Aniston, $25.5 million 17. Jennifer Lawrence, $24 million 18. Ryan Reynolds, $21.5 million 19. Matt Damon, $21 million 20. Jeremy Renner, $19 million 21. Chris Evans, $18 million 21. Melissa McCarthy, $18 million 23. Chris Pratt, $17 million 24. Mila Kunis, $15.5 million 25. Emma Watson, $14 million 26. Mark Ruffalo, $13 million 27. Cate Blanchett, $12 million 28. Julia Roberts, $12 million 29. Amy Adams, $11.5 million