Tom Cruise & Margot Robbie Named Highest-Paid Actor & Actress
Cruise’s “Top Gun: Maverick” has raked in $1.2 billion at the global box office to become Paramount’s highest-grossing movie ever.
Tom Cruise has flown through the Danger Zone to the top of Hollywood’s highest-earners list, thanks to the record-breaking box office success of Top Gun: Maverick.
A new Variety report estimates that the 60-year-old star and producer of the Top Gun sequel will make more than $100 million from a lucrative combination of his salary, and a cut of ticket sales, home rentals and streaming revenue.
Cruise’s total salary puts him well ahead of runner-up Will Smith, who signed on to star in Apple’s upcoming escaped-slave thriller Emancipation for $35 million.
Meanwhile, Margot Robbie has been named as the world’s top-paid actress, with the A-lister cashing in $12.5 million for the titular role in the upcoming Barbie movie.
“I would never bet against Tom Cruise,” one studio executive told Variety, noting his extreme dedication to promoting his movies on a global scale. “Most actors aren’t worth what you pay them, but Cruise and maybe Dwayne Johnson justify their salaries.”
Anybody who bet against Top Gun: Maverick at the box office lost, as it’s already taken $1.2 billion globally to become Paramount’s highest grossing movie ever and the 12th in history to cross the $600 million mark domestically, as the Daily Mail notes.
Even for Cruise, Top Gun-sized paychecks come once in a lifetime. For comparison’s sake, the leading man in the long-running Mission Impossible franchise will get a significantly lower initial fee for the next two installments—between $12 and $14 million. But he’ll also a sizable portion of the movies’ first-dollar gross as a bonus before the studio breaks even.
Cruise’s Mission Impossible salary is more in line with those of of Smith and other top-earning actors.
Leonardo DiCaprio is estimated to take $30 million for the Martin Scorsese-directed Western crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon, and Brad Pitt is expected to make the same for starring in an untitled Formula One drama helmed by Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski.
Head to Variety to see the full list.
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