Once again, Forbes has published the list of the highest-paid Hollywood actors, this time during the year 2023. Adam Sandler occupies first place with $73 million. The figure comes mainly from the Netflix film Criminals in Sight, although last year it also released You’re Not Invited to My Bat Mitsva, starring his wife and his daughters, for the platform. Additionally, he voiced a character in the animated film Leo. And to this we must add the 44 comedy shows that he stars in. The last time Sandler was at the top of the highest-paid list was in 2002.
It is striking that Sandler has ousted the protagonists of Barbie and Oppenheimer, the highest-grossing films of last year. But since he signed his first $250 million, four-picture deal with Netflix in 2014, Sandler, 57, has starred in eight films for them and produced several more through his Happy Madison production company.
The majority of his back catalog of comedies is now licensed to the platform as well. In the first six months of 2023 alone, Netflix subscribers spent more than 500 million hours watching Sandler’s films. Consequently, Netflix has rewarded the prolific actor with one of the most lucrative contracts in the entertainment industry.
Second place goes to Margot Robbie, with $59 million, which came primarily from her role in Barbie, as well as appearing in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City and producing Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn. Margot, 33, is the youngest person in this classification. She is ten years younger than the next person on the list, who has an average age of over 52 years old.
In third position is Tom Cruise, who raised $45 million with Mission Impossible: Mortal Sentence – Part 1, in addition to accumulating profits from streaming sales of Top Gun: Maverick. Cruise is one of the last, if not the last, movie star who can still achieve the vaunted “first dollar gross” deal, meaning he is paid a percentage of the box office and other earnings starting on the day of its release, before the studio even gets its money back.
In fourth place is a tie between Ryan Gosling, who earned $43 million for Barbie, and Matt Damon, who earned the same amount for his roles in Air and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
Sixth position goes to Jennifer Aniston, Sandler’s co-star in Criminals in Sight, who pocketed $42 million.
In seventh place, both Leonardo DiCaprio and Jason Statham earned $41 million. DiCaprio starred in Martin Scorsese’s Killers on the Moon, while Statham released Fortune, Fast
The list is completed in ninth place by Ben Affleck, who earned approximately $38 million with Air, and in tenth position by Denzel Washington, who earned $24 million mainly thanks to the success of The Equalizer 3.
Beyond the high salaries, what this year’s highest-paid stars have really gained is greater power within the industry, particularly the ability to negotiate even more favorable terms for their next project.
