Shock Names Among Hollywood’s Highest Earning Men

Last week Kristen Stewart was named as the highest earning actress in Hollywood of the last year, this week it is the turn of the men. Although Stewart earned over $34million her Twilight co-stars Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner earned a lot less only just manage to make it onto the top ten of the highest paid men in Hollywood.

Happier times on screen rather than off screen for Cruise.

He may be going through some rocky times in his personal life right now but Tom Cruise has reason to smile as he has been crowned as the highest paid man in Hollywood of the past year having earned a massive $75million. Cruise’s career has seen something of a turn around recently as he has returned to centre stage in films Rock of Ages and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol with a number of films in the pipeline to keep his mind off his current divorce and custody battle for daughter Suri Cruise. Although Rock of Ages was deemed a box office failure Cruise proved he is cleverer than some people may think he is after deciding to take a pay cut on Ghost Protocol in return for a share of the profits; the film went on to earn over $700million.

In second place there is a tie with last years highest earner Leonardo DiCaprio and an outlandish and outrageous and totally undeserving actor: Adam Sandler. In acting standards there is a huge gap between these two, DiCaprio rarely has a bad film released (although J. Edgar did not do as well as expected) and is widely accepted as one of the best actors working today whilst Sandler’s good films went out with the dinosaurs; he releases awful film after awful film these days and people are actually paying him to do so? DiCaprio and Sandler both earned $37million but you can’t help but feel that money of Sandler’s should have been paid for him to stop acting.

Any excuse to include The Rock.

Another shock name makes the list at number four but this time it is one of a much happier nature. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is Hollywood’s fourth highest earning actor of the last year… can you believe that?! I am a big fan of his but this news surprises me to no end, although he was pretty much single handedly responsible for the success of Fast Five last year.

Other well known names on the list are Ben Stiller at number five and will hopefully see more money when his next film The Watch is released after all the problems so far with its promotional campaign.  Johnny Depp, another Hollywood mega star going through a divorce, is on the list and despite his Dark Shadows bomb this year Depp is the only actor to have three films cross the $1billion mark globally, now THAT is impressive! Will Smith is always a box office draw and is often thought of as one of the most reliable stars in Hollywood as his name and his face brings in audiences no matter the quality of the film.

Here is the complete Top 10 according to Forbes:

1. Tom Cruise – $75million

2. Leonardo DiCaprio – $37million

= Adam Sandler – $37million

4. Dwayne Johnson – $36million

5. Ben Stiller – $33million

6. Sacha Baron Cohen – $30million

= Johnny Depp – $30million

= Will Smith – $30million

9. Mark Wahlberg – $27million

10. Robert Pattinson – $26.5million

= Taylor Lautner – $26.5million

DiCaprio Signs on for Scorsese’s Latest Project

Simple maths... DiCaprio + Scorsese = Brilliance.

It has been reported that Leonardo DiCaprio is set to reunite with Martin Scorsese for the fifth time in his career. The film, this time, is a drama named The Wolf of Wall Street.

The film is based on the memoirs of white collar criminal and motivational speaker Jordan Belfort. DiCaprio is being tipped to play the “hard partying, drug addicted stockbroker” who served time in prison for security fraud and money laundering.

DiCaprio and Scorsese have previously worked together on Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed and Shutter Island resulting in brilliant films every time. This is what we have come to expect when one of the world’s best directors teams up with one of the world’s leading actors and the same will be expected of The Wolf of Wall Street as it’s release gets closer.

Leonardo DiCaprio last starred in J. Edgar, directed by Clint Eastwood, in hope for Oscar recognition but his performance fell short and the film whilst still received well, did not do as well as had been hoped.

With two films scheduled for released in December 2012 it seems likely that Dicaprio will gain another Oscar nomination considering that both films are prime Oscar-bait. One of them, The Great Gatsby, also stars the brilliant Carey Muligan and is being directed by Baz Luhrmann. The second, and the one with the most hype surrounding it’s release, is Django Unchained. This is Quentin Tarantino’s latest project and stars DiCaprio as the villain. With Tarantino’s last film, Inglorious Bastards, gaining Christoph Waltz an Oscar DiCaprio will be hoping for the same to happen to him.