Dwayne Johnson tops Forbes list of world's highest-paid male actors

Dwayne Johnson, the wrestler turned actor formerly known as the Rock, has again topped Forbes’s list of the highest-paid actors having made an estimated $87.5m (£67m) in the fiscal year ending June 2020.

Next on the list were Ryan Reynolds and Mark Wahlberg, with $71.5m and $58m respectively. Save for Johnson, the names mark a considerable contrast to those on last year’s top 10, which was dominated by the stars of the Marvel franchise.

Instead Netflix emerged as the leading employer, with at least 25% of the total $545.5m earnings paid out by the streaming giant.

Forbes estimates Johnson was paid around $23.5m for the forthcoming Netflix film Red Notice and made considerable returns on his collaborations with the clothes and headphones brand Under Armour.

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Reynolds, who is also in Red Notice, reportedly banked more than $20m for each of his most recent Netflix films, while a similar figure is likely to have been paid to Wahlberg for Spenser Confidential.

Ben Affleck, who ranked fourth on the list with an earnings estimate of $55m, also made a Netflix film, The Last Thing He Wanted, as well as redemptive sporting drama The Way Back.

Johnson’s Fast and Furious co-star Vin Diesel was next, with $54m, again mostly thanks the Netflix via their series Fast & Furious Spy Racers, which he produced. The ninth instalment in the film series was moved to next year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Akshay Kumar, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Will Smith, Adam Sandler and Jackie Chan comprise the rest of the top 10. Miranda’s $45.5 comes almost exclusively from the deal cut with Disney+ for the streaming rights to the filmed version of Hamilton.

Sandler signed a four-film deal with Netflix for $250m in 2014; Murder Mystery, in which he co-starred with Jennifer Aniston, was one of the streamer’s major hits of last year.

Forbes’s equivalent list for female actors is due out next week.