#1. Robert Downey, Jr. - $75 million
Last year, Robert Downey Jr. topped
Forbes' list of top earning actors, and he has done so once again. Last year, it was estimated that the actor pulled in $75M and that is the same figure experts estimate he made in 2014. Most of his record earnings are based on box office bonuses and back-end compensation from
Iron Man 3, which pulled in $1.2 billion in box office revenue. He'll need more piggy banks as next year he has revenue from
Avengers: Age of Ultron to look forward to.
#2. Dwayne Johnson - $52 million
#3. Bradley Cooper - $46 million
#4. Leonardo DiCaprio - $39 million
#5. Chris Hemsworth - $37 million
The Aussie actor, Chris Hemsworth ("Rush"), cracked the top ten this year for the first time. Forbes' has him listed as 5th with $37M. He too owes much of his wealth to Marvel Studios as
Thor: The Dark World earned $644M at the worldwide box office in 2014. The film outperformed the first
Thor by $200M.
#6. Liam Neeson - $36 million
#7. Ben Affleck - $35 million
#8. Christian Bale - $35 million
#9. Will Smith - $32 million
#10. Mark Wahlberg - $32 million
"To compile our earnings estimates, we talk to agents, producers, lawyers and other in-the-know folks to figure out how much each celebrity earned from entertainment-related work between June 2013 and June 2014. We do not deduct for taxes, agent fees or the costs of being a celebrity." - Dorothy Pomerantz from Forbes