I’ll start right off by telling you that Adam Sandler was the highest-paid actor in 2023 yet didn’t have a single movie in the theatres the entire year. What the what?!?
Well, maybe I’m being a bit dramatic because technically endorsements and commercials play a major role since earning power for actors is beyond movies and television shows.
However, that’s not the case for Adam so what landed him in the #1 spot on 2023’s top 10 list of highest-paid actors?
According to Boston.com, Adam’s $73 million landed him in the top spot because of his lucrative deal with Netflix. His movies old and new have been viewed hundreds of millions of times on Netflix since he joined forces with the streaming giant in 2014.
His production company Happy Gilmore Productions started with a four-film deal with Netflix and is again doing the same thing for another four.
Here’s your full list which Forbes puts out annually.
1. Adam Sandler ($73 million)
2. Margot Robbie ($59 million)
3. Tom Cruise ($45 million)
4 (tie). Matt Damon ($43 million)
4 (tie). Ryan Gosling ($43 million)
6. Jennifer Aniston ($42 million)
7 (tie). Leonardo DiCaprio ($41 million)
7 (tie). Jason Statham ($41 million)
9. Ben Affleck ($38 million)
10. Denzel Washington ($24 million)
Similar to Adam, best friends Matt Damon (4) and Ben Affleck (9) have streaming to thank via Amazon who paid $130 million for the rights to their Nike biopic Air. Matt was also in the blockbuster Oppenheimer.
Meanwhile, Margot is at #2 primarily for Barbie, Tom Cruise had another blockbuster in the Mission Impossible franchise as well as Top Gun Maverick hitting streaming platforms, while Ryan Gosling was in Barbie andJennifer Aniston’s Murder Mystery 2 with Adam arrived last year on Netflix as well as another season of the hit series The Morning Show on Apple+ for Jen.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Jason Statham had a few movies out with Leo in Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-nominated Killers of the Flower Moon and Jason in Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, Fast X, Meg 2: The Trench and Expend4bles.
Finally, Denzel Washington found some success in the action-thriller sequelThe Equalizer 3 rounding out the top 10.
