Actors and actresses make some of the highest salaries in the entertainment industry, especially if you're someone like Marky Mark or The Rock. In fact, just last year, Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson together made $133 million, making them the top two highest paid actors of the year, according to Forbes' "Highest-Paid Actors and Actresses 2017" list. However, it turns out, the entire list of the top 10 highest paid Hollywood actors and actresses are all male, making a cumulative $488.5 million in salaries, with names like Adam Sandler, Tom Cruise and Robert Downey, Jr.
And while Emma Stone, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Watson topped last year's list of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood, their salaries were not quite comparable to that of their male counterparts. For instance, Stone, dubbed the highest paid female actress, made $26 million, which wasn't even close to the salaries of any of the top 10 actors'. In total, the salaries of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood was $172.5 combined, or about a third of what the men made.
Despite the major gender pay gap, many of these highly paid stars were featured in high-budget action-packed franchise movies like Marvel's Thor and The Fast and the Furious. Watson's role as Belle in Beauty and the Beast, which made over $1 billion in box offices worldwide, helped land her on this year's list. And Melissa McCarthy's Emmy-winning Sean Spicer performance for SNL might have attributed to her success.
Image credit:
Warner Bros. | Paramount Pictures | Columbia Pictures | Twentieth Century Fox
Mark Wahlberg, $68 million
Image credit:
NIKLAS HALLE'N | AFP | Getty Images
Mark Wahlberg takes the cake for the highest paid actor of 2017, bringing in a whopping $68 million last year. Wahlberg starred in a number of large-scale movies throughout 2017, including Patriots Day, oil spill biopic Deepwater Horizon and Transformers: The Last Knight. While these movies did not wind up being major box office successes as planned, being the big actor he is, Wahlberg receives upfront compensation, meaning he gets paid the big bucks whatever the outcome of a movie.
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, $65 million
Image credit:
Alberto E. Rodriguez | Getty Images
Thanks to his work in Ballers, The Fate of the Furious, Baywatch and his upcoming action-packed film Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, in one year, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson raked in a mere $65 million, placing him as the second-highest-paid actor of 207.
Vin Diesel, $54.4 million
Image credit:
Dimitrios Kambouris | Getty Images
While he starred in movies both onscreen and offscreen last year, Vin Diesel was a voice-over actor in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and the leading character, Xander Cage, in xXx: Return of Xander Cage. Of course, the famous celeb is also a part of The Fast and Furious franchise, starring in last year's film alongside The Rock, The Fate of the Furious. These blockbuster hits alone helped make Diesel the third-highest-paid actor of 2017, with a salary of $54.4 million.
With his four-movie deal with Netflix—two of which were released last year—it's no wonder Adam Sandler was the fourth-highest-paid actor of 2017. His Netflix hits The Meyerowitz Stories and Sandly Wexler helped the comedian-slash-actor make $50.5 million just in one year.
Jackie Chan, $49 million
Image credit:
Jason LaVeris | Getty Images
Jackie Chan starred in a number of action-packed films last year—both big and small, national and international—including Reset, The Foreigner, Bleeding Steel, The LEGO Ninjago Movie, Kung Fu Yoga, The Nut Job 2 and Namiya. All that hard work paid off, though, because Chan ended up making $49 million last year.
Robert Downey, Jr., $48 million
Image credit:
Alberto E. Rodriguez | Getty Images
While he fell from first place to sixth, Robert Downey, Jr., otherwise known as "Iron Man," continued making superhero movies in 2017, when he starred in Spider Man: Homecoming. That movie attributed to Downey's $48 million salary in 2017.
Tom Cruise, $43 million
Image credit:
Donna Ward | Getty Images
Another star who's cashing in on the action movies is Tom Cruise. Cruise reportedly made eight figures for each of his 2017 movies: The Mummy and American Made. Both of these combined landed Cruise number seven on the list of highest paid actors last year, with a salary of $43 million.
Chris Hemsworth, $31.5 million
Image credit:
Kevin Winter | Getty Images
Best known as "Thor," Chris Hemsworth rakes in the big bucks starring in the money-making Marvel Comics franchise. Just last year, Hemsworth made $31.5 million, and most of that was from Thor: Ragnarok.
Tom Hanks, $31 million
Image credit:
Samir Hussein | Getty Images
Unsurprisingly, Tom Hanks also landed himself on last year's list of the highest paid actors, with a salary of $31 million. Hanks starred in major motion pictures including The Post, The Circle and Spielberg.
Samuel L. Jackson, $30.5 million
Image credit:
Noam Galai | Getty Images
Landing 10th on the list of highest paid actors in 2017 is Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson earned $30.5 million last year for lots of hard work. In just those 365 days, Jackson was in five movies: Kong: Skull Island, Unicorn Store, The Hitman's Bodyguard, Blazing Samurai and xXx: Return of Xander Cage.
Image credit:
Fox Searchlight | STX Entertainment | Walt Disney Pictures | Paramount Pictures
Emma Stone, $26 million
Image credit:
VALERIE MACON | AFP | Getty Images
Last year's highest paid female actress is LaLa Land's Emma Stone. In 2017, she made $26 million, which was mostly rollover from her stellar performance in LaLa Land—the film that earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress. She also starred in Battle of the Sexes and The Croods 2.
Jennifer Aniston, $25.5 million
Image credit:
Marc Piasecki | Getty Images
While Jennifer Aniston only starred in one movie last year, indie flick The Yellow Birds, she made most of her $25.5 million salary from endorsement deals with companies like Emirates, Smartwater and Aveeno.
Jennifer Lawrence, $24 million
Image credit:
Samir Hussein | Getty Images
For the past few years, Jennifer Lawrence has typically taken first when it comes to the highest paid Hollywood actress, thanks to The Hunger Games franchise. However, even though that ship has sailed, Lawrence still brought in $24 million last year thanks to her film Mother! and various endorsement deals.
Melissa McCarthy, $18 million
Image credit:
Gregg DeGuire | Getty Images
Actor and comedian McCarthy turned heads last year with her hilarious performance as Sean Spicer on Saturday Night Live, for which she received an Emmy Award. In 2017, McCarthy also produced a new comedy series, Nobodies, which helped contribute to her $18 million salary.
That 70s Show star Mila Kunis raked in $15.5 million over the course of 2017, mostly thanks to her lead role in the Bad Moms sequel, A Bad Moms Christmas, which made over $100 million in the box office.
Emma Watson, $14 million
Image credit:
Jason LaVeris | Getty Images
With the release of the highly anticipated Beauty and the Beast last year, which became the highest grossing live-action musical ever, making over $1 billion in the box office worldwide, it's no wonder Emma Watson is the sixth-highest-paid actress of 2017. Later in the year, she also had time to star alongside Tom Hanks in The Circle, all which contributed to her $14 million salary.
Charlize Theron, $14 million
Image credit:
Neilson Barnard | Getty Images
Charlize Theron's roles in the action-packed movies Atomic Blonde and The Fate of the Furious helped land her $14 million by the end of 2017.
Australian actress Cate Blanchett brought home $12 million last year, most of which can be attributed to her role in the Marvel Comics flick Thor: Ragnarok.
Julia Roberts, $12 million
Image credit:
Pascal Le Segretain | Getty Images
In 2017, Julia Roberts was a voice-over actor in Smurfs: The Lost Village and also starred alongside Owen Wilson in the movie Wonder, which came out at the end of the year and has since made over $250 million in the box office.
Amy Adams, $11.5 million
Image credit:
Jason LaVeris | Getty Images
Reappearing as Lois Lane, Superman's love interest, in Justice League helped Amy Adams score a nice $11.5 million salary in 2017.
More from Entrepreneur
Our Franchise Advisors will guide you through the entire franchising process, for FREE!
Book a one-on-one session with a Franchise Advisor
