Here Are The Highest-Paid Actors In 2024

Today on Forbes, the highest paid actors of 2024. Dwayne Johnson first announced his involvement in the film Red One on Instagram in June 2021, the first of dozens of posts promoting the movie to his 394 million followers over the course of the next three years, leading up to the movie's theatrical release last November. Even after negative critical reception and middling box office performance, $186 million worldwide against a reported $250 million budget, Johnson kept pushing the movie online, and when it debuted on Amazon Prime Video a month later, Red One drew a record 50 million viewers in its opening weekend. As all eyes are on Hollywood this weekend for the Academy Awards on Sunday, this is actually what movie stardom looks like in 2025. For the top tier of Hollywood talent, acting in a film has become just one element of a multi-year platform partnership between a studio and an actor to develop, produce, and most importantly, market a project to audiences. Those who have proven their ability to personally convert fans into customers have become more valuable than ever before. Johnson's contract for Red One, which included upfront fees for acting and producing, as well as a buyout of back-end participation for both roles, will pay him an estimated $50 million, believed to be the highest fee-plus-buyout total in history for a single movie. When combined with Johnson's impressive deal for Moana 2 and his catalog of older titles, he earned an estimated $88 million last year after paying fees to his agent and lawyer, making him the highest-paid actor of 2024. Right on his heels is Ryan Reynolds, who similarly was the lead producer, co-writer, and star of the year's biggest live-action theatrical hit, Deadpool and Wolverine. He even produced commercials for the movie through his marketing agency, Maximum Effort. Reynolds' busy year was rewarded with an estimated $85 million after fees, though in the end, 2024 might be remembered for the swarm of lawsuits between his wife, Blake Lively, and It Ends With Us filmmaker Justin Baldoni, which have seen his name littered throughout court documents. Close behind Johnson and Reynolds, in third place, is another power promoter. Kevin Hart, whose unrivaled volume of self-produced movies, TV shows, podcasts, and stand-up comedy, continues to reinforce his status as the hardest-working man in show business, and brought in an estimated $81 million. Those three multi-hyphenates earn the same amount as the rest of the top 10 combined, lapping veteran movie stars like Brad Pitt, with $32 million in earnings after fees, Nicole Kidman, with $31 million, and 2023's highest-paid actor, Adam Sandler, with $26 million, none of whom come with their own built-in marketing machine. Still, it pays to be an established hitmaker from a previous generation. The average age of the top 20, who combined for more than $730 million in earnings last year, is a little over 54 years old. These actors benefit not only from high salaries set by the precedent of past hits, they continue to receive sizable checks each year from those old projects, whether it be TV shows or decades' worth of movies. Forbes estimates Jerry Seinfeld, No. 4 this year, pockets $30 million each year for creating Seinfeld. And Matt Damon, No. 16 this year, earned an estimated $8 million last year in profit participation for his back catalog, which includes the Born and Oceans franchises. That has made it difficult for new stars to enter the top echelon of pay in Hollywood. Last year's top 20 doesn't include any actors in their 20s or 30s. The youngest is 40-year-old Scarlett Johansson at No. 19. And that's even after a breakout year for young stars like Sidney Sweeney, Glenn Powell, and Zendaya. Representatives around Hollywood say that those actors' fees have jumped for future projects and that they are among the hardest actors to book right now. But the consensus is that they will need to continue to prove that the success came as a direct result of their billing in order to achieve top earnings in future years. For full coverage and to see the whole list, check out Matt Craig's piece on Forbes.com.