Every year Forbes releases its list of Hollywood’s highest paid actors, and the results are often surprising. Take this year, for example, with Tom Cruise topping the list at $75 million. Though Cruise was paid handsomely for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and Rock of Ages, it seems more likely that he would’ve topped the list in 1992 rather than 2012. But Cruise leads the pack with more than double the take of the two actors tied in second place, Leonardo DiCaprio and Adam Sandler, both at $37 million (though I guess I’ll add the expected comment about Cruise’s pending divorce possibly taking a hit of that income here). Sandler remains an annual top earner, even if his movies tend to get worse by the year.
Coming in just under DiCaprio and Sandler is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson ($36 million), who has recently been called “franchise Viagra” based on helping both Fast Five and Journey 2 The Mysterious Island become the highest grossing films in their respective franchises. Paramount is certainly hoping he can work his magic a third time with the recently delayed G.I. Joe sequel.
Others on the list include perennial high-earners (Johnny Depp, Will Smith) and the Twilight dudes. The rest of the list is as follows:
5. Ben Stiller — $33 million
6-8. Sacha Baron Cohen — $30 million
Johnny Depp — $30 million
Will Smith — $30 million
9. Mark Wahlberg — $27 million
10 & 11. Taylor Lautner — $26.5 million
Robert Pattinson — $26.5 million
