Top 10 Earners In Hollywood In 2012

This survey by Anthony Ada Abraham, also looks at the highest paid and their net worth.

Tom Cruise:
American film actor and producer, Tom Cruise has an estimated net worth of $270 million. Tom Cruise made a strong impression in the teen comedy Risky Business (1983) and then had his first box-office smash as the fighter jet Maverick in Top Gun (1986).

Cruise and his cocky grin were propelled higher onto Hollywood’s A-list thanks to a string of successful movies. Cruise is the world’s highest earning actor after he took home $75 million between May 2011 to May 2012.

While Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol collected close to $700 million worldwide, the 1980s musical Rock of Ages starring Cruise wasn’t a big draw.

Taylor Swift: $57  million
Singer-songwriter and actress Taylor Swift has a net worth of $80 million. In 2011 alone Taylor Swift made more than $45 million from album sales, touring, merchandise and endorsements. Born in Wyomi, Pennsylvania, Swift and her family relocated outside Nashville, Tennessee when Swift showed keen interest in pursuing a career in country-pop music.

A year after signing with Big Machine Records, Swift released her first single, Tim McGraw, preceding her first self-titled studio album release. Taylor Swift reached the number five position on the US Billboard 200, but obtained the number one spot on the US Country Music chart. The album produced two number one hit singles (Our Song, Should’ve Said No) and to date Taylor Swift has been certified platinum four times by the RIAA. 

$57 million was earned in 2012. Swift’s second album, Fearless, peaked at number one on the US Billboard, US Country, New Zealand and Canadian music charts. It has been certified platinum in four countries, six times in the USA alone, and also produced two number one singles (Love Story, You Belong with Me). She has performed with music artistes such as John Mayer, Justin Bieber and Faith Hill. In 2010 alone, Forbes estimates that Swift earned $45 million.

Rihanna: $53 million
Another young woman who is making a killing wave in music is Rihanna. The Barbados-born singer earned an estimated $53 million between May 2011 and May 2012, putting her in third place on the list. Her earnings this year got a big boost from  an 85-night tour and her 2011 hit album Talk That Talk, which has gone gold in the U.S. and launched hits like “We Found Love.”

Like Swift, Rihanna also earns big money from endorsements. She happily promotes Vita Coco coconut water and Nivea lotion. Rihanna debuted on the Celebrity 100 in fourth place in 2012.

With over 25 million albums sold and 60 million singles worldwide as of 2012, Billboard named Rihanna, Digital Song Artiste of the last decade. With over 53 million Facebook fans, Rihanna is second only to Eminem.

Adam Sandler: $37.5 million                                  

He  is famous for two things; making funny movies and getting paid tons of money to make such movies. Through his acting and producing, Sandler has been able to amass a personal net worth of $300 million. He is one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars which allows him to command $20 million per movie along with very impressive percentages of a film’s gross profits, not net profits. For the movie Anger Management Sandler earned $25 million plus 25% of the gross which was roughly $150 million. That’s an extra $37.5 million in the Sandman’s pocket.

Leonardo DiCaprio: $37 million
American actor and film producer, Leonardo  Wilhelm DiCaprio has an estimated net worth of $200 million. As the blond, blue-eyed icon for millions of teenage girls and more than a few boys everywhere, Leonardo DiCaprio emerged from relative television obscurity to become perhaps the hottest under-30 actor of the 1990s. After leading roles in William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (which grossed $147.5 million worldwide) and James Cameron’s Titanic.

DiCaprio moved forward with a string of successful movies, including Catch Me if You Can (grossed $352 million worldwide), Gangs of New York (grossed $193.7 million worldwide), The Aviator (grossed $211.7 million worldwide), The Departed ($289 million worldwide), and award-winning film Revolutionary Road.

Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock: $36 million.
An American actor and former professional wrestler, he has a net worth of $70 million dollars. The Rock played college football on the University of Miami’s national championship team. Johnson later played for the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League, but was cut early into his first season. The Rock decided to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather who were both professional wrestlers.

Johnson made his WWF debut as Rocky Maivia, a heroic character, combining the ring names of his father and grandfather. In 1997 Johnson turned to a villain character in the ring, adopting the name The Rock, a charismatic character that audiences warmed to readily. Johnson made his fame as a wrestler in World Wrestling Entertainment from 1996 to 2004, and was nine-time world heavyweight champion for the WWE.

The Rock began his acting career in 2001 and switched his focus to acting full time after retiring from the ring. Johnson wrote his autobiography ‘The Rock Says’ in 2000, the book debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list and remained on the list for several weeks.

Johnson starred in The Scorpion King in 2002, his first leading role, and continued his acting career with dramatic and comedy roles in films such as Walking Tall, Gridiron Gang, Get Smart, Race to Witch Mountain, Be Cool, The Game Plan, Planet 51, Why Did I Get Married Too?, Tooth Fairy, and The Other Guys. In 2000 Johnson hosted Saturday Night Live, with guest appearances made by fellow wrestlers; The Big Show, Triple H, and Mick Foley. In September 2012, Celebrity Net Worth named The Rock the richest wrestler in the world. He is at $36 million.

Kristen Stewart: $34.5million
Stewart knocks Angelina Jolie off the top spot as Hollywood’s highest paid actress.

Kristen Stewart, who shot to fame as Bella Swan in The Twilight Saga films and has a starring role in Snow White and the Huntsman jumped to the top of Forbes.com’s annual list of highest-paid actresses 2012.

The 22-year-old earned an estimated $34.5 million between May 2011/2012 and pushed Angelina Jolie down as Hollywood’s highest paid female star with earnings in the last year outstripping her $20million earnings.

Largely thanks to the $12.5 million (plus a share of the profits) she received for each of the two-part The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn films, Stewart dethroned reigning queens Angelina Jolie and Sarah Jessica Parker, who previously shared the crown with an estimated $30 million each.

Cameron Diaz: $34 million
She landed just below Stewart with an estimated $34 million, much of which came from a profit-sharing deal for the surprise hit Bad Teacher, which earned $216 million globally.

Cameron Diaz is a California born model and actress who has a net worth of $90 million. She signed with Elite Model Management and began at the age of sixteen. After five years and many fashion campaigns (including Calvin Klein) and living abroad in such places as Japan, Australia and Paris, Diaz returned home to Southern California and despite having no experience with acting, she auditioned for and won the female lead starring opposite Jim Carrey in the 1994 film The Mask, which grossed $343.9 million in worldwide box office revenue.

Diaz would hit big three years later with My Best Friend’s Wedding, which grossed $299 million worldwide, and with the title role in There’s Something About Mary, which grossed $369 million worldwide and garnered Diaz her first Golden Globe nomination. Further award nominations shortly followed for her role in Being John Malkovich, which was an instantaneous critical success.

Diaz was featured in other successful films, such as Charlie’s Angels (grossing $264 million worldwide), Vanilla Sky, for which Diaz also received four prestigious award nominations, and Academy-Award winning film Gangs of New York (grossing $193 million worldwide). Diaz provided the voice of Princess Fiona in the Shrek franchise, the second film, Shrek 2 grossing the highest at $919 million worldwide. Diaz earned $20 million for her role in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, the third actress to achieve this financial feat. Diaz received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2009.

Ben Stiller — $33 million
Ben Stiller (born Benjamin Edward Stiller on November 30, 1965), is an American actor, comedian, writer, film director and producer with an estimated net worth of approximately $120 million. He is the son of two famous acting parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, and has often said that he was “born for a career in show business.” Stiller began his career writing “mockumentaries” (spoofs of documentaries).

Although still young, his body of work is prolific. To date, he has written, starred in, directed or produced over 50 films. These films have grossed more than $2.1 billion … an average per film of $76 million. There are very few, if any, failures in Stiller’s portfolio. He has won an Emmy for Best Writer for a TV Show, The Ben Stiller Show, several MTV Movie Awards and a Teen Choice Award, as well.

Johnny Depp: $30 million
Johnny Depp is an American actor whose films have grossed $3.1 billion in America and $7.6 billion worldwide. His personal net worth is estimated at $350 million, with his annual salary reaching $100 million. Depp was born in Kentucky and moved frequently as a child; at the age of fifteen, he dropped out of school and joined a band, and later moved to Los Angeles in pursuit of a record contract. He decided to pursue acting instead, and took minor film roles throughout the 1980s, including a role in Nightmare on Elm Street.

In 2003, Depp appeared in the first of four Pirates of the Caribbean movies from Disney and exectutive producer Jerry Bruckheimer, playing eccentric pirate captain Jack Sparrow; his performance earned him an Academy Award nomination, which he followed up with another nominated performance as the author J.M. Barrie in 2004 Finding Neverland. He has been said to have grossed up to $300 million for his role in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

The earnings are as follows:
1  Tom Cruise — $75 million 

2 Taylor Swift -$57 million

3  Rihanna- $53 million 

4 Leonardo DiCaprio — $37 million 

5 Adam Sandler – $37 million 

6 Dwayne Johnson — $36 million

7 Kristen Stewart – $34.5million

8  Cameron Diaz -$34 million

9 Ben Stiller — $33 million

10  Johnny Depp - $30 million