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Scarlett JohanssonHollywood’s leading actresses provide better value for money than their male counterparts, a new ranking of star salaries shows.
Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis make the top five in the list of movie stars offering the best return on investment, with Jennifer Lawrence following close behind.
Johansson ranked at number three on Forbes’ list, boasting an impressive return of $88.60 for every $1 earned. The publication estimated that the actress was paid a mere 1 percent of the $463 million grossed by hit films such as “Lucy,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” and “Captain America: Civil War.” Her “Civil War” co-star, Chris Evans led the list, thanks to a modest earning from the Marvel hit, which made over $1 billion at the box office.
Kunis proved to be another good investment, making $49.50 for every $1 paid, even factoring in box office flop “Jupiter Ascending.” Her numbers were likely bolstered by the success of R-rated comedy “Bad Moms,” which brought in over $150 million with only a $20 million budget.
Meanwhile Lawrence provided big returns from franchise films such as “X-Men: Apocalypse” and “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2.” Following her Lenny Letter Lawrence vowed to fight for better pay, such as her $20 million salary for “Passengers,” which is perhaps what landed her just outside of the top five.
READ MORE: 5 Most Shocking Pay Gaps Between Leading Men and Women
But Jennifer’s big pay was an exception rather than the rule. As if further proof were needed that women don’t usually pocket the same massive paychecks as the men, the list of the top five most overpaid stars is exclusively populated by men. Top spot taken by Johnny Depp. It’s the second year in a row that he has led the ranking by Forbes.
The overpaid actors list is populated with heavy hitters such as George Clooney and Will Smith, who demand large salaries, which hurts their ROI when a film flops.
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Clooney returned only $6.70 for every dollar paid, following smaller grosses on films “Hail, Caesar!” and “Money Monster,” as well as flop “Tomorrowland.” Channing Tatum followed close behind, making $6 for every $1 paid. Despite success with “Magic Mike XXL,” his numbers were dragged down by the massive box office flop of “Jupiter Ascending.”
Depp offered a staggering difference from the top actresses’ return, bringing in a mere $2.80 for every $1 he was paid. This is in large part due to the failure of “Alice Through the Looking Glass.”
To compile their list, Forbes looked at the last three films that each actor starred in before June 2016, foregoing numbers from animated films, cameo roles, and films with a limited release. They found the estimated production budget for each film to decide its operating income, adding together estimated compensation for the star on the three films as well as the income from each movie. To finally arrive at the return on investment, they divided the total of the film’s income by the total pay received by the star.
