25 Highest Paid Actors in 2024
July 2, 2024
2023 was a tumultuous year in Hollywood. The Writers Guild of America, a labor union that represents roughly 11,500 screenwriters, was on strike between May 2 and September 27. On July 14, the American actors’ union SAG-AFTRA went on strike too, and their labor dispute wasn’t resolved until November 9. The intricacies of the strikes are beyond the scope of this article, but both were fundamentally about the lack of fair compensation for union members in the age of streaming services and looming AI. So before we get to the list of the highest-paid actors, here are a few key facts to chew on—
Prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike, the median pay for unionized actors was $46,960 annually. The mean annual salary of actors was $46,960, and more than 80% of actors made less than $26,000 a year. Research agencies typically consider anything under $48,500 lower income. That means that most actors are lower income, despite the public’s conception of acting as a luxurious, high-paying career. Still sound appealing? Check out our 25 Best Colleges for Drama/Acting in 2024,our Best High Schools for Drama and the Performing Arts, and our Best Summer Programs for Theater.
And for those interested in doing some compare-and-contrast pocket watching, here are lists of the highest paid college football coaches, college athletes, and college basketball coaches.
Highest Paid Actors (Continued)
Before getting to the highest paid actors in 2024, a quick note on how I arrived at the figures: the numbers below reflect only what each actor has made from acting in recent movies. After all, the title of this article is “25 Highest Paid Actors in 2024,” and not, “25 Highest Paid Actors/Brand Ambassadors/Espresso Salespeople in 2024.” In other words, the numbers do not represent an actor’s net worth. Those numbers are truly jaw-dropping, whereas the numbers here are just mildly shocking. And while sites like Forbes and Variety regularly publish information pertaining to actors’ salaries, oftentimes, the minute details of actors’ contracts are kept from the public. So many of the numbers below are just the estimated salaries for an actor’s work on a given movie. In all likelihood, the actors’ actual earnings are much higher than what I’ve listed.
Highest Paid Actors in 2024
25) Robert DeNiro – $8 million
The legendary actor made a reported $8 million for his role in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon.
24) Cillian Murphy – $10 million
Cillian Murphy was paid a reported $10 million for his role as J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s Best Picture-winning Oppenheimer.
23) Timothee Chalamet – $11 million
Chalamet made $9 million playing Willy Wonka, and another $2 million for his work in the second Dune movie.
Highest Paid Actors 2024 (Continued)
22) Emily Blunt – $14 million
Another guesstimate: Emily Blunt made $4 million for her role in Oppenheimer. Additionally, her salary for The Fall Guy was somewhere between $5 million and $20 million. So if we split the difference and call it 10, it’s safe to say that Blunt is one of the highest-paid actors in 2024.
21) Eddie Murphy – $15 million
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F dropped on July 3, 2024, and Murphy was paid $15 million for his work on the latest installment of the franchise.
Highest Paid Actors 2024 (Continued)
20) Keanu Reeves – $15 million
The beloved action star made $15 million for reprising his role as hitman John Wick in the fourth installment of the series.
19) Jason Momoa – $15 million
Aquaman 2 came out in December 2023, and per reports, Momoa took home $15 million for his role as the underwater superhero.
18) Joaquin Phoenix – $20 million
I’m a big Joaquin Phoenix fan. He’s been turning in amazing performances for decades. Plus, he consistently uses his platform to advocate for the environment and animal rights.
Joker: Folie à Deux, is slated to premiere in October 2024, and Phoenix also made $20 for his role as the titular anti-hero.
Highest Paid Actors 2024 (Continued)
17) Vin Diesel – $20 million
For those of you keeping track, there are now more than ten installments of the Fast and Furious franchise (the latest one is called Fast X, but there are actually a total of 12 movies that make up the Fast universe). And there’s a reason they keep churning these things out: Fast X, which came out in May 2023, made $715 million at the box office. Vin Diesel, reprising his role as Dominic Toretto, made $20 million for his work on the film.
16) Chris Hemsworth – $20 million
Hemsworth made $20 million for his work in the second installment of the action-thriller franchise Extraction. That film came out in 2023.
Highest Paid Actors 2024 (Continued)
15) Tom Hardy – $20 million
Venom: The Last Dance is set to release in late October 2024. Hardy earned a reported $20 million for reprising his role.
14) Emma Stone – $22.5 million
Emma Stone took home the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Bella Baxter in Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things. Although Poor Things is far from Stone’s biggest blockbuster success (The Amazing Spider-Man did $758 million at the box office, La La Land did $437; Poor Things, $117), she made an estimated $22.5 million for her work on the film.
Highest Paid Actors 2024 (Continued)
13) Denzel Washington – $24 million
The third Equalizer movie was released in 2023, for which Denzel reportedly earned a cool $20 million. That, plus earnings from his back catalog, resulted in a $24 million net for Washington in the year 2023.
12) Will Smith – $25 million +
This is a guesstimate. Will Smith made $35 million for his work on Apple TV’s Emancipation, which came out in 2022. Side note: that’s far from Smith’s biggest payday from a single film. He made $40 million for his role as Venus and Serena Williams’ father, Richard Williams, in the 2021 sports drama King Richard. Additionally, he made $100 million off his performance in the third Men in Black movie.
But back to the matter at hand: Smith made $25 million for the latest installment of the Bad Boys franchise, Bad Boys: Ride or Die. That check alone makes him one of the highest-paid actors in 2024.
11) Brad Pitt – $30 million +
The number above is another major guesstimate. Because while Pitt’s 2023 was quiet in terms of releases (the only movie he was involved in was Landscape with Invisible Hand, and he executive produced the film but didn’t appear in it), he’s been gearing up for a huge 2024. Pitt stars in the upcoming action-comedy Wolfs, which is set to release in September 2024. He’s also starring in the as-yet-untitled Joseph Kosinski Formula 1 movie; Variety reported that he’ll make $30 million for his role as Sonny Hayes in that film alone.
Highest Paid Actors 2024 (Continued)
10) Ben Affleck – $38 million
Ben Affleck smoking through the pain of existence is one of my favorite memes of all time. The famous images of the Good Will Hunting actor/writer just seem to drip with ennui. And that’s in stark contrast with the kind of year Affleck had in 2023, financially speaking. Affleck is the CEO of the production studio Artists Equity, and he starred in the Artists Equity-produced Air. He also appeared in a series of commercials for Dunkin Donuts. When all was said and done in 2023, the actor had taken home $38 million.
9) Jason Statham – $41 million
2023 was a big year for action mainstay Jason Statham. He starred in three big-budget blockbusters: Fast X, Meg 2: The Trench, and Expend4bles. His 2024 is off to a lucrative start, too: The Beekeeper, in which Statham plays the titular role, is one of the highest grossing films of the year so far.
Highest Paid Actors 2024 (Continued)
8) Leonardo DiCaprio – $41 million
Leonardo DiCaprio starred in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, and although he didn’t get an Oscar nomination for his performance as Ernest Burkhart, it was still a banner year for him, financially speaking. Bringing in $41 million, Leo is far and away one of the highest-paid actors in 2024.
7) Jennifer Aniston – $42 million
Every single year, Jennifer Aniston earns $20 million in Friends royalties alone. And that’s nothing compared the kind of bread the show continues to generate for studio execs. In 2015, it was reported that Warner Bros earns $1 billion—yes, a billion—each and every year from Friends.
And royalties aside, Aniston had a busy year. She’s the star of Apple TV’s The Morning Show, which came out with a new season in 2023. Aniston reportedly earns $2 million for each episode, and each season’s got ten episodes. That’s another easy $20 million for her work on The Morning Show in 2023 alone. Aniston also appeared in Netflix’s Murder Mystery 2 alongside Adam Sandler.
Highest Paid Actors 2024 (Continued)
6) Matt Damon – $43 million
Props to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who in 2022 started Artists Equity, a production company premised on letting crew members and staff share in a movie’s profits. To date, four Artists Equity projects have been released, and four more are currently in the works. This includes a follow up to 2016’s The Accountant, with Affleck starring as the titular accountant.
In 2023, Matt Damon had a supporting role in Best Picture-winning Oppenheimer. And even though he took home a modest-for-Hollywood $4 million for his role as Leslie Groves, the director of the Manhattan Project, Damon still managed to land on the list of the highest paid actors in 2024.
5) Ryan Gosling – $43 million
2023 was a fun year for Ryan Gosling. It was also massively lucrative. His portrayal of Ken in Barbie earned him one of the biggest checks of his acting career. Additionally, his signature Ken tune “I’m Just Ken,” has been streamed more than 100 million times on Spotify.
Highest Paid Actors 2024 (Continued)
4) Tom Cruise – $45 million
Rain Man. A Few Good Men. Minority Report. I don’t consider myself a huge Tom Cruise fan, but he’s sneakily well-represented amongst my all-time favorites. The Outsiders, Born on the Fourth of July, Risky Business…the list of iconic films featuring Tom Cruise in a leading role goes on and on. I wonder to what extent I’m obligated to separate the artist from the art. Or not separate the artist from the art. Because Tom Cruise is a poster boy for a religious organization that moves eerily like the mob, a religious organization that’s known for abusing its members and harassing critics.
Film financiers don’t seem to mind. According to Forbes, Cruise is likely the last actor in Hollywood who gets “first-dollar gross” deals. That means that Cruise gets paid a percentage of box office revenue from his films starting the day they release. Another Mission Impossible flick came out in 2023, and he’s still raking in profits from 2022’s Top Gun, so it’s no wonder he’s one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actors.
3) Dwayne Johnson – $50 million
The Rock is an inescapable part of the media landscape. Even when he has a quiet year, he seems to be ubiquitous. There was even speculation that he was going to run for president after a poll revealed that 46% of Americans would support his candidacy.
In 2023, Johnson focused primarily on his pet entrepreneurial projects like Teremana tequila and his efforts to resuscitate the XFL. Later this year though, the Rock will be back on screen in a major way: Red One, a Christmas action-comedy with Johnson in the leading role, is slated to be released in November. According to reports, Johnson earned $50 million for his work in Red One. This was the most lucrative movie deal for an actor in Hollywood history.
Highest Paid Actors 2024 (Continued)
2) Margot Robbie – $59 million
Margot Robbie made a meager $12.5 million for her performance as the Barbie in the 2023 mega-hit. But as a producer of the movie, she’s also cashing in on a major slice of back-end profits. And since Barbie raked in $1.45 billion at the box office worldwide, that’s a hefty chunk of change. Robbie’s production company LuckyChap was also behind psychological thriller/satire Saltburn, and in February 2023 LuckyChap signed a first-look feature film deal with Warner Bros.
1) Adam Sandler – $73 million
Back in 2014, Sandler signed a deal with Netflix reportedly worth $250 million.
In 2023, three of those Netflix features were released, including Murder Mystery 2, which was streamed a total of 173 million hours worldwide in just the first three months after its release. 2023 also saw Adam Sandler back on the road doing comedy, which, combined with his Netflix revenue, made for an incredibly lucrative year.
Highest Paid Actors – Additional Resources
Lastly, we wanted to link to some related blogs that may be of interest:
