Ouch!
According to Forbes, Eddie Murphy tops the list of
the most overpaid actors in Hollywood. Three of Murphy's films (
Meet Dave,
Imagine That and
A Thousand Words) were flops. Last year's
Tower Heist may have earned more than his previous films with $153 million, but the budget for it was $75 million and Forbes points out that in order for a film to make a profit, a movie needs to basically make twice that in ticket sales and of course, all the money spent on marketing. With all that information, Forbes estimates that for every $1 Murphy was paid, the return average at the box office was $2.30.
How did Forbes come up with their list? Good question and here's the answer from Forbes themselves:
"To compile our list, we used data on actors’ earnings gathered for our Celebrity 100 list. Box office grosses and budget estimates are from Box Office Mojo. We looked at the last three films each actor starred in over the last three years that opened in more than 2,000 theaters, calculating the return on investment for the studios who pay his (or her) salary."
Katherine Heigl came in at second with a return average of $3.40 for every $1 she was paid for her last three films (which included the
One for the Money which made only $37 million while the film budget was $40 million).
Reese Witherspoon is ranked third. The return average at the box office for every $1 she was paid was $3.90.
How Do You Know had an extremely high budget of $120 million (most of that went to the salaries of Witherspoon, Paul Rudd and Owen Wilson) only grossed $49 million.
Ranked fourth is Sandra Bullock. For every $1 she was paid, the box office return was $5.
All About Steve and
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close were both box office duds which is basically why she's ranked in the top five.
Jack Black enters the list at number five. For every $1 he was paid, the average box office return was $5.20. He was in
The Big Year with Owen Wilson and Steve Martin, but those big stars weren't enough to draw people to watch their film because it only earned $7 million at the box office.
Here is the complete top 10:
#1: Eddie Murphy
#2: Katherine Heigl
#3: Resse Witherspoon
#4: Sandra Bullock
#5: Jack Black
#6: Nicolas Cage (Returns $6 for every $1 paid)
#7: Adam Sandler (Returns $6.30 for every $1 paid)
#8: Denzel Washington (Returns $6.30 for every $1 paid)
#9: Ben Stiller (Returns $6.50 for every $1 paid)
#10: Sarah Jessica Parker (Returns $7 for every $1 paid)
