Mark Wahlberg named world’s highest-paid actor in 2017

LOS ANGELES – Mark Wahlberg soared to the top of the world’s highest paid actors on an annual Forbes magazine list that highlighted a huge disparity between male and female Hollywood stars.

Wahlberg, 46, earned an estimated $68 million in 2017 thanks to his pay days for movies Transformers: The Last Knight and Daddy’s Home 2, according to the Forbes ranking released on Tuesday.

“The former may have scored a miserable 15% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and the lowest gross of the franchise to date, but Wahlberg need not worry – fixed compensation means he benefits even when movies don’t do well,” said Forbes.

The rapper-turned-actor knocked 2016 leader Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson into second place, with estimated 2017 earnings of $65 million, after starring in the big screen reboot of lifeguard action-comedy Baywatch and starring in HBO comedy Ballers.

The former wrestler appears in fantasy adventure remake Jumanji in December and Rampage, a monster movie based on the 1980s arcade game, in April next year.

Forbes estimates earnings, before taxes and management fees, from movies, TV, and commercial endorsements.

The Forbes list again highlighted Hollywood’s gender pay gap. Last week, the magazine named La La Land Oscar winner Emma Stone as the world’s highest paid actress with an estimated 2017 take of $26 million.

Forbes said the 10 highest-paid leading men earned a combined $488.5 million before tax in its June 2016-June 2017 scoring period, nearly three times more than the $172.5 million earned by the top 10 scoring women.

Forbes attributed the disparity to the prevalence of superhero and action blockbusters that earn big at the box office for Hollywood studios but tend to have fewer leading roles for women.

Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp, who for years has been among the top five paid actors, did not make the top 20 this year, Forbes said. Depp is currently embroiled in a bitter lawsuit with his former business managers who have detailed what they describe as his lavish spending habits.

Last December, before the May 2017 release of Pirates of the Caribbean; Dead Men Tell No Tales, Forbes named Depp the most overpaid actor for a second straight year as films such as Alice Through the Looking Glass and Mortdecai did not fare well.

Vin Diesel, who co-stars with Johnson in the Fast and Furious franchise, came in third on men’s list with $54.5 million, just ahead of comedy actor Adam Sandler, who made $50.5 million, largely because of a deal with Netflix that allows him to produce his own movies.

Rounding out the top five is Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan, still hugely popular in China, who made $49.5 million over the last 12 months.

Robert Downey, Jr., Tom Cruise and Bollywood kings Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar rounded out the top ten. – Reuters/AFP