Actors Making Bank - The Latest on Hollywood's Earners & Burners

Clearly, there's money to be made in Hollywood as an actor or actress. You don't even have to be an A-list commodity to make a decent living, although it's helpful. After all, who wouldn't want to be paid millions of dollars just to do whatever it is you do best?

In Hollywood money is tossed around like it was being printed by Milton Bradley. Top actors and actresses are making 8-figure salaries up front, with a piece of the action on the backend if the film makes money. Sometimes those salary figures make people crazy, but when put into perspective they somehow - almost - make sense.

Will Smith tops Hollywood's list of highest paid actors, making $80 million from his last four studio films. More than just a small pile of cash by any standard. However, those four films - Seven Pounds, Hancock, I Am Legend, and The Pursuit of Happyness - made nearly $1.7 BILLION dollars at the box office, worldwide. This does not include DVD sales, which can be as much as three times box office figures!

Here's the bottom line: you, me, and everyone we know would invest $80 million to get a return of $1.7 billion every day of the week if we could, because that's a massive return on investment, and that's the business of Hollywood studios. Will Smith's $80 million paycheck wound up being less than 5% of his films' grosses. Any way you slice it, he's a bargain and probably underpaid.

On the flipside of that coin is the most overpaid actor in Hollywood. Those honors go to Will Farrell. What is it with all these Wills? Seems that Farrell makes $1 for every $3 his films make at the box office. That'd be the mark of smashing success if the films in which he stars actually made money. Will Farrell made $20 million for Land of the Lost, which, well, lost at the box office. The film barely grossed $65 million, worldwide, which wouldn't be too bad if it hadn't cost more than $100 to make.

So, what would earning $1 for every $3 made at the box office mean for Will Smith? Add another zero to the end of his $80 million and you'd be right on track. See, now doesn't the math of Hollywood actually add up? Well, it makes sense to me. I just gotta figure out how to get a piece of it now!

New Book