Daniel Craig Is Now At The Top Of The List Of Highest Paid Movie Stars
Variety has compiled a list of the highest-paid actors working in the business and Daniel Craig is at the top. Dwayne Johnson was at the top of Forbes’ list last year. But not this one. It seems all that money Netflix paid for the Knives Out sequels trickled down into Daniel’s bank account and he made a cool $100 million. And his kids won’t see a penny!
Variety explains that Netflix gave Daniel such a huge check for two Knives Out sequels because they added in the bonuses he would’ve gotten if it was released in theaters only.
His windfall can be attributed to the fact that Netflix compensates movie stars for the projected back-end box office participation they would reap if their movies were released exclusively in theaters. Add to that salary bumps Craig would’ve received for second and third films in the murder mystery series, and the outgoing James Bond is sitting on a nine-figure check.
AKA: Everybody’s rich! The studios are rich, Daniel is rich, rich all around! Except for us, we just pay subscription fees. But this doesn’t mean that The Rock is being left in the dust. He still makes more money than God, which is a good thing for him since he’s gotta pay for all the water he uses by showering three times a day.
The new equation has created exponentially higher upfront paydays, including $30 million for Dwayne Johnson to star in Amazon Studios’ acquisition of his holiday adventure Red One, which could balloon to $50 million when his backend is finalized.
But because of streaming issues, stars have been cashing in from studios in case they’re thinking of screwing them like how Scarlett Johansson got allegedly shafted:
The new deal economy has also created headaches for studios like Warner Bros., whose decision to release its entire 2021 film slate on HBO Max and in theaters concurrently caused a talent revolt. Denzel Washington and Will Smith both earned $40 million for their respective WB titles The Little Things and King Richard, insiders tell Variety, to account for diminishing box office in light of streaming premieres.
Here’s Variety’s Top 10 list of the richest movie stars and the projects that helped put them on this list:
- Daniel Craig, Knives Out sequels: $100M
- Dwayne Johnson, Red One: $50M
- Will Smith, King Richard: $40M
- Denzel Washington, The Little Things: $40M
- Leonardo DiCaprio, Don’t Look Up: $30M
- Mark Wahlberg, Spenser Confidential: $30M
- Jennifer Lawrence, Don’t Look Up: $25M
- Julia Roberts, Leave the World Behind: $25M
- Sandra Bullock, The Los City of D: $20M
- Ryan Gosling, The Grey Man: $20M
Like I mentioned above, Daniel Craig has said more than once that he thinks inheritances are “distasteful” and so he’s not going to leave his two children any trust funds. Daniel plans to leave whatever he hasn’t spent during his lifetime to charity. So if you see Daniel on the street, quickly show him your 23andMe results to prove that you’re not related so he can go ahead and give you a piece of his Knives Out millions without feeling like he’s being tacky! But I will say that seeing a list of rich celebrities that does not include Kylie Jenner is actually very satisfying.
Pic: Wenn.com