When it comes to the world’s top-earning actors, you might have thought heavy-hitters like Brad Pitt, George Clooney or Leonardo DiCaprio ranked amongst the top. They are, after all, those of such clout and professional standing that to think their name is to immediately ponder which films saw them win an Oscar and just how many they have to their name. But in keeping with modern times, these faces that have dominated for so many years have instead been overtaken by another dominant force: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Yet again, Johnson is the highest paid actor on the Forbes list of celebrity earners for 2020 and the tenth highest paid celebrity in the world, sitting behind the likes of Kanye West, Tyler Perry and LeBron James.
While he’s known for his workouts and gruelling fitness regime, Johnson is also creating quite the filmography to his name. And with the likes of Black Adam and Jungle Cruise, the star is only set to receive another massive payout, earning more than $20 million per movie. Of course, there’s also the pay checks he’s getting for his work on the sitcom Young Rock and from hosting The Titan Games.
In 2018, Johnson earned an income of $124 million from his movies and Ballers HBO series. It was the largest ever recorded income for acting in the 20 years that Forbes has tracked celebrity earnings, something Johnson himself didn’t take lightly as he, too, celebrated the news via Instagram. It’s thanks to this large Instagram following that Johnson is seen as a movie draw-card, seeing him net up to $25 million per role for his films. The star tacks on an extra “seven-figure social media fee” to each of his movie contracts, according to Forbes. So all of his tweets and Instagram videos, they aren’t just a way for Johnson to stay connected to fans and express his excitement about a film role. It’s how he makes part of his income.
This was followed in 2019 with another $89.4 million income, thanks to massive paydays with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Hobbs and Shaw. He also starred in the fifth season of Ballers and became the host of NBC’s Titan Games. Of course, when Covid hit in 2020, the Rock saw a drop in his earnings, with just $87.5 million. Still, with the end of HBO’s Ballers, he turned his attention to his own show and became a narrator, creator and executive producer on the comedy Young Rock.
While there’s no denying the film industry has suffered greatly as a result of the global pandemic, Johnson’s income has not as the actor has some huge projects up his sleeve for the year ahead. His net worth, built-up over a nearly 25-year career of wrestling and acting is estimated to total $320 million, according to TheRichest.com.
It seems that Netflix has shaken up the impossibly wealthy standings of celebrities, with streaming deals proving incredibly lucrative. While it might have been the case that an Academy Award was what beckoned most to the profession, since the emergence of streaming, giants like Netflix have seen the pockets of Hollywood’s finest expand significantly as they continue to throw vast sums behind their projects. If you were at all curious how it works in terms of economics, Netflix does operate similar to that of the traditional movie studios in the sense that those that draw a crowd earn more. But for the streaming platforms, it’s not so much the crowd but rather how many monthly subscriptions a film will sign up and retain. According to Forbes, “That’s a figure that is calculated using Netflix’s treasure trove of proprietary data, including the number of times a film is streamed and the number of repeat viewings, as well as a dash of an actor’s social media following.”
For Johnson, who continues to sit pretty at the top of the highest-earning actor’s list, he can thank his Netflix film Red Notice for helping him secure the position yet again. For the film, he pocketed a staggering $23.5 million. For this action star, he’s only going from strength to strength and as he forges his way into the canon of superhero movies, it only looks like Johnson’s net worth will continue to climb.
