Forbes Names Hollywood's Most Overpaid Actors
Summary
Who are Hollywood's most overpaid actors? Well, we can tell you that Ice Cube made Forbes' recently released list, and he doesn't look too happy about it. Back to Article
Who are Hollywood's most overpaid actors? Well, we can tell you that Ice Cube made Forbes' recently released list, and he doesn't look too happy about it. Back to Article
(1-20 of 20 posts) | Reply
on Nov 19 2009 05:24 AM "injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere." MLK, Jr. The article also can be associated with yesterday's news . . . Asian-Americans (American Citizens of Asiatic Descent) actors are the most Under-Paid actors . . . and routinely disenfranchised by the entertainment industry's unfair and unlawfully discriminatory hiring practices. The casting of an European American actor (Keanu Reeves) as a Japanese Samurai is only another instance in a long list of instances where Asian Americans have been intentionally excluded by the casting and/or hiring practices of movie studios operating in Hollywood. BRUCE LEE, memorialized in DRAGON: THE BRUCE LEE STORY, experienced blatant discrimination in Hollywood. Up to the time of BRUCE LEE'S death, Bruce Lee worked to fight against the negative and non-existent representation of Asians in American Cinema. The NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has the ability to assist Asian actors and technicians who desire to work in the entertainment industry. DRAGON: THE BRUCE LEE STORY depicted Asians who were unwilling to join BRUCE LEE in his determination to further integrate Asians into the "Hollywood System." If you are a minority and desire to work in the entertainment industry do contact the NAACP at NAACP.ORG and the Anti Defamation League at ADL.ORG "injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere." MLK, Jr. (Reply to this) |
on Nov 19 2009 05:34 AM Are they just doing the last year here or over the course of an entire career? Because if it's career these have to be way off. (Reply to this) |
on Nov 19 2009 06:12 AM In reply to this comment (#2562635) uh, gordo, this is an article about OVERPAID actors, not discriminated ones. And FYI, Keanu is 1/2 asian. Besides, who cares whether or not the actor taking the role represents the nationality, its about who they are marketing the film to that matters to the studios. More people are gonna pay to see Keanu Reeves then say, someone like Stephen Chow or Tony Jaa. (Reply to this) |
on Nov 19 2009 07:21 AM I agree with the list but feel there should be more on there. Gordon do you need some cheese with your whine? (Reply to this) |
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on Nov 19 2009 07:23 AM Right... so I click on it to read the full article, it says "click here for yadda yadda yadda, in pictures" , I click that and it takes me back to the first screen. Where is the article? (Reply to this) |
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on Nov 19 2009 08:42 AM In reply to this comment (#2562638) Read the article, Bigbrother. It says exactly what calculation was used to determine this list. (Reply to this) |
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on Nov 19 2009 08:57 AM In reply to this comment (#2562700) I read bits of it, but it seemed like the article was broken up on my computer. Initially it went to a picture of Ice Cube, then it went back to a broken up article that I couldn't completely follow. I just saw some of the big names and I was thinking "Are these really the worst bets?" As far as I remember Will Farrell has only had a couple of movies that weren't big successes and I don't exactly think of Tom Cruise when I think of Box Office poison just yet. (Reply to this) |
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on Nov 19 2009 08:59 AM I see now, when I clicked on it there was only the picture without the description beside it and no link to move on. I gotcha now. Still doesn't seem quite right. (Reply to this) |
on Nov 19 2009 10:01 AM Worst interactive model ever. This was done by Forbes? They need to fire their web guy. (Reply to this) |
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on Nov 19 2009 11:09 AM In reply to this comment (#2562635) Like De4ective Detectiv3 already mentioned, Keanu Reeves is at least somewhat Asian, as he has a father of Hawaiian-Chinese descent. How come that makes him European-American, just because his mom is English and Reeves himself is actually Canadian? Remember, he's been Siddharta, and nobody minded. (Reply to this) |
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on Nov 19 2009 11:11 AM Posted by Senior_Citizen | 11/19/09 01:38 PM EST 1 (Worst) Will Ferrell No. 2 Ewan McGregor No. 3 Billy Bob Thornton No. 4 Eddie Murphy No. 5 Ice Cube No. 6 Tom Cruise No. 7 Drew Barrymore No. 8 Leonardo DiCaprio No. 9 Samuel L. Jackson No. 10 Jim Carrey There's some truth about this list, even though it needs to elaborate on each one on how much they were initially been paid to star in these unsuccessful films in the duration of the last 3 years, it shouldn't just be the first three or four names. (Reply to this) |
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on Nov 19 2009 11:15 AM Also, it would be interesting to see how much money the movies had lost as a result of paying these actors. At least I couldn't find anything on it!!!!! (Reply to this) |
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on Nov 19 2009 12:14 PM Thank you Dave J. Much easier than that stupid site! And yeah, I would agree with everyone but Ewan McGregor. His stuff pretty much rocks. (Reply to this) |
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on Nov 19 2009 03:24 PM With a life time total gross of $2,795,421,790 Tom Cruise should not be included on any list like this just yet. Valkyrie and MI3 still managed to combine for 600 mill world wide alone despite his bad image of late. (Reply to this) |
on Nov 19 2009 05:43 PM Oh Will Ferrel... you have fallen so far. (Reply to this) |
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on Nov 19 2009 07:18 PM Eh, you can only take so much from a list like this. I mean sure Shia Labeouf's films earned $160 per every buck he got paid, but what makes these films "his"? People saw Indiana Jones and Transformers because they were freaking Indiana Jones and Transformers, and it works both ways. Sometimes well-liked actors are in movies that people don't want to see. That doesn't really make them all overpaid. I think they could come up with a better formula than this. (Reply to this) |
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on Nov 19 2009 10:26 PM The reason Cruise is on here is that: a) it's only looking at the last few years, and while his movies haven't been tanking lately, they haven't been doing as well as they were 5-10 years ago. But more importantly: b) He gets paid a ridiculous amount of money. He's been commanding a $20-25 million salary since the first Mission:Impossible back in 1996 (that was a lot of money back then, and hel1, it still is today), plus he's one of the actors who first made the concept of gross participation common. (i.e. he gets a percentage of the movie's profits). He usually gets between 15 and 30%, which can mean a lot. As I recall he ended up making 70 million on each of the first two M:I movies between up-front salary and profit sharing. I don't know if he still gets those kinds of ridiculous deals the last few years, but it could easily account for why his movies don't net the producers all that much money. (Reply to this) |
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on Nov 19 2009 10:42 PM In reply to this comment (#2562963) That's a good point trgdr777, but I think their system works ok as long as the actor's salary is the largest single cost (or at least one of the largest) for a movie. It gives a skewed perspective of Shia LaBeouf's ROI because in his highest grossing movies, he isn't the primary investment. For Indiana Jones, Spielberg and Ford were the biggest costs, LaBeouf was spare change. In Transformers, Michael Bay and the plethora of computer generated robots were the big costs. And as you said, people aren't going to see him when they see those movies. So the producers aren't gambling on his salary to bring people in. But for people like Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell, Jim Carrey, Leo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise, and other A-list talent, their salaries usually are the biggest expenditure for their movies, and the presense of that A-list talent often is the reason people go to see their movies, so the producers are essentially gambling on their salaries to bring people in. So for A-listers, I think it is a pretty fair formula. But people like Ewan McGregor, who I imagine doesn't get paid all that extravagantly, should probably be left out of these lists; he doesn't have the star power for a studio to reasonably bank on him drawing people in. He's a good actor, but he's not quite a marketing tool in of himself. (Reply to this) |
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on Nov 19 2009 11:02 PM In reply to this comment (#2562635) I mentioned this on the 47 Ronin article commenrs board, but since you saw fit to bring it up again here for some reason, I'll respond again: Keanu Reeves has a way higher profile than any actor in Hollywood of significant east Asian ancestry. The closest person I can think of would be Jet Li, but he doesn't have near the star power Reeves does (plus he tends to avoid playing Japanese characters, though I don't know if that's deliberate or coincidental). It's hardly uncommon for producers to want to have a big star in the lead role in their movie. Reeves' appearance is probably the closest to east Asian of any A-list Hollywood actor, due to his Chinese heritage. No, I'm not saying he looks Japanese; obviously he does not, but he could pull off playing a character of mixed Japanese/European heritage; maybe they'll make adjustments to the character to establish such a thing. Anyway, my point is that the casting of Reeves was almost certainly motivated by business and marketing considerations, and not by flagrant racial discrimination. If they cast a caucasian D-lister in the lead role, I could definitely see a reason for concern, because there'd be absolutely no business value in doing so. Likewise, if they cast every samurai with caucasians, that would definitely be wrong. But Reeves makes perfect sense to me as a happy medium between someone who could somewhat believably pull off the role while still drawing in big crowds. As long as the rest of the cast is predominantly filled with actors of Asian ancestry, I don't think there's any need to get so up in arms. (Reply to this) |
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on Nov 20 2009 05:47 PM Any actor asking for more than 15 million should be laughed out of town. All those execs paying large sums of money to these actors need to be slapped across the face to wake them up. New Golden Rule for producers/studio execs/directors...You must laugh in the face of any actor who asks for riculous sums of money or contracts. Let the actors know that they are easily replaceable, no matter who they are. But what about overseas draw? You'll save more by not paying those ridiculous amounts and can probably use that money to hire passionate writer(s) and a director who'll get performences out of any actor. (Reply to this) |
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