Adam Sandler topped Forbes’s 2023 highest-paid actors list with an estimated $73 million after representation fees. Margot Robbie ranked second at $59 million and Tom Cruise third at $45 million. These are Forbes estimates of entertainment earnings—not audited compensation or a ranking of actors’ salaries alone.
Forbes’s top 10 highest-paid actors of 2023
Forbes published its ranking on March 6, 2024. The figures are estimated U.S. dollar earnings for entertainment work credited to calendar year 2023. Forbes reports the net estimate after representation fees, with gross figures in parentheses where provided.
| Rank | Actor | Estimated earnings after representation fees | Reported gross earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Adam Sandler | $73 million | $97 million |
| 2 | Margot Robbie | $59 million | $78 million |
| 3 | Tom Cruise | $45 million | $53 million |
| 4 (tie) | Ryan Gosling | $43 million | $50 million |
| 4 (tie) | Matt Damon | $43 million | $50 million |
| 6 | Jennifer Aniston | $42 million | $56 million |
| 7 (tie) | Leonardo DiCaprio | $41 million | $48 million |
| 7 (tie) | Jason Statham | $41 million | $48 million |
| 9 | Ben Affleck | $38 million | $45 million |
| 10 | Denzel Washington | $24 million | $28 million |
Forbes puts the ten actors’ combined estimated earnings at $449 million. The rankings include ties: Gosling and Damon share fourth place, while DiCaprio and Statham share seventh.
How Forbes calculated the estimates
Forbes says it developed the figures through interviews with agents, lawyers, managers, executives and industry experts, alongside sources including IMDbPro and Polestar. Its estimates cover pretax entertainment earnings for 2023 after representation fees. They are not public tax returns, audited statements or independently verified disclosures.
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For context, Forbes cites industry-standard deductions of 10% for agents, 10% for managers and 5% for lawyers, while noting that not every actor works with all three. It credits earnings to the year a project was released, even when an upfront fee was paid earlier or back-end participation is received later. Qualifying work includes acting, producing, directing and stand-up; unrelated business ventures are excluded.
Why Sandler, Robbie and Cruise ranked first, second and third
Adam Sandler: films and touring
Forbes attributes Sandler’s $73 million net estimate to three Netflix film projects and more than 40 stand-up tour dates during 2023. The article relays Netflix-reported viewing figures: Sandler films were streamed for more than 500 million hours in the first half of 2023, and Murder Mystery 2 was watched for 173 million hours in its first three months, appearing in Netflix’s Top 10 in 90 countries. These are platform figures reported by Forbes, not independent audience measurements.
Rank #2
Margot Robbie: acting and producer participation in Barbie
Forbes connects Robbie’s $59 million estimate to Barbie, which it says grossed $1.45 billion worldwide. Robbie was both the film’s star and a producer; Forbes estimates her share of back-end profits at more than $60 million. The article also notes her production company LuckyChap and a new first-look deal with Warner Bros. The estimated earnings reflect more than a single acting fee: compensation can include participation tied to a film’s performance, with amounts arriving on a different schedule from the film’s release.
Tom Cruise: theatrical and ongoing revenue
Forbes links Cruise’s $45 million estimate to Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning and continuing streaming and on-demand profits from Top Gun: Maverick. It describes his “first-dollar gross” arrangement as giving him a share of box-office and other revenue from release, before the studio recoups its costs. That contract description is Forbes’s account.
Rank #3
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What the ranking says about movie earnings in 2023
Forbes describes the list as dominated by movie work rather than television. It connects that pattern in part to the writers’ and actors’ strikes, which shut down Hollywood for roughly half the year and delayed or shortened television seasons.
The article also contrasts streaming and theatrical compensation. Streaming deals can pay more upfront in exchange for buying out later back-end participation; a theatrical hit can continue generating revenue for participants with profit shares. Forbes says Robbie and Ryan Gosling’s listed Barbie compensation reflects estimated box office, video-on-demand and the film’s first streaming window, with further compensation potentially arriving later.
Rank #4
Source and scope
The ranking and explanations come from Matt Craig’s “Revealed: The 10 highest-paid actors of 2023,” published by Forbes Australia on March 6, 2024: Forbes Australia.
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