Dwayne And Clooney
George Clooney may not have helmed a hit in years, but his wallet hasn’t noticed. Thanks to the up to $1 billion purchase of his Casamigos Tequila, Clooney scored a career high pretax paycheck of $239 million between June 1, 2017 and June 1, 2018.
The 57-year-old tops Forbes’ annual ranking of highest-paid actors, which tallies both onscreen and extracurricular earnings in our 12-month scoring frame. Last June, British liquor conglomerate Diageo announced it would purchase Casamigos for $700 million up front with the potential for an extra $300 million over the next decade.
For Clooney, that meant an estimated $233 million pretax from Casamigos, plus additional earnings from endorsements and older movies.
“If you asked us four years ago if we had a billion-dollar company, I don’t think we would have said yes,” Clooney told CNBC when the deal was announced.
Casamigos was founded in 2013 by Clooney, nightlife entrepreneur Rande Gerber and real estate tycoon Mike Meldman. According to a source close to the business, the trio invested $600,000 apiece and owned equal stakes in the company prior to the acquisition.
Clooney’s tequila cash edges Dwayne ‘The Rock” Johnson, who banked $124 million pretax to rank No. 2 on the highest-paid actors list. He tallied the largest ever acting take-home from front-of-camera roles in Celebrity 100 history, thanks to giant upfront paychecks and a cut of profits on blockbusters including Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. A huge social following allows him to negotiate an extra seven figures atop his standard contract for promotion, helping nearly double his 2017 earnings.
“Social media has become the most critical element of marketing a movie for me,” Johnson told Forbes.“I have established a social media equity with an audience around the world that there’s a value in what I’m delivering to them.”
Rounding out the top three is Robert Downey Jr., who pocketed $81 million. Iron Man still negotiates with an iron fist, cashing an estimated $15 million up front for 2017’s limited-screen-time role in Spider-Man: Homecoming. He earned several times that amount for Avengers: Infinity War. His co-star, Chris Hemsworth (No. 4; $64.5 million), scored a career best thanks to his cut from Marvel movies such as Thor: Ragnarok.
Here are the ten highest-paid actors in the world, according to Forbes:
1. George Clooney — $239m
2. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson — $124m
3. Robert Downey Jr. — $81m
4. Chris Hemsworth — $64.5m
5. Jackie Chan — $45.5m
6. Will Smith — $42m
7. Akshay Kumar — $40.5m
8. Adam Sandler — $39.5m
9. Salman Khan — $38.5m
10. Chris Evans — $34m
Source: Forbes