From 2016 through 2025, Dwayne Johnson topped Forbes’ annual highest-paid actors ranking five times. The decade’s yearly leaders also included Mark Wahlberg, George Clooney, Tyler Perry and Adam Sandler. The figures below are Forbes earnings estimates, not a decade-long cumulative ranking or a measure of acting salary alone.
Who topped the ranking each year?
This is a year-by-year list of the top actor in each Forbes annual ranking for the ten calendar ranking years 2016–2025. The amounts are reported estimates; their basis and context are not identical across every edition.
| Ranking year | Top actor | Reported earnings | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Dwayne Johnson | $64.5 million | Forbes’ top earner, as reported by TIME. |
| 2017 | Mark Wahlberg | $68 million | Forbes estimate, as listed in the annual compilation. |
| 2018 | George Clooney | $239 million | Mainly attributed to the June 2017 sale of Casamigos tequila. |
| 2019 | Dwayne Johnson | $89.4 million | Forbes estimate. |
| 2020 | Dwayne Johnson | $87.5 million | Forbes estimate. |
| 2021 | Dwayne Johnson | $270 million | Forbes estimate. |
| 2022 | Tyler Perry | $175 million | Forbes estimate. |
| 2023 | Adam Sandler | $97 million | Forbes estimate. |
| 2024 | Dwayne Johnson | $103 million gross; $88 million after fees | Forbes figures reported by Forbes Australia. |
| 2025 | Adam Sandler | $60 million gross; $48 million after fees | The annual compilation lists $60 million; a Forbes article excerpt reports $48 million after fees. |
The 2017–2023 figures above are summarized in an annual reference table that links to the corresponding Forbes editions. For year-specific methodology and context, consult the original Forbes ranking where available.
What the decade’s leaderboard shows
- Dwayne Johnson led five rankings: 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2024.
- Adam Sandler led twice, in 2023 and 2025.
- Mark Wahlberg, George Clooney and Tyler Perry each led once.
The largest listed total is Johnson’s $270 million in 2021. Clooney’s $239 million in 2018 is also an outlier, but for a different reason: the annual compilation says it was mainly tied to the Casamigos sale, rather than representing film compensation alone.
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How to interpret the earnings figures
They are not necessarily acting salaries
Annual earnings can include income beyond acting, including business proceeds. Clooney’s Casamigos-related 2018 total makes that distinction especially clear. The figures should therefore be read as estimates of earnings attributed to the actor in a given ranking, not as a tally of paychecks for film and television work.
Gross and after-fee totals are different measures
For 2024, Forbes Australia reported Johnson’s figure as $103 million gross, or $88 million after fees. For 2025, the annual compilation lists Sandler at $60 million, while the Forbes excerpt reports $48 million after fees. Those paired amounts are not contradictory: they use different fee treatments. Avoid comparing one year’s gross amount directly with another year’s after-fee figure.
Rank #2
Forbes Australia’s methodology note for the 2024 ranking describes its estimates as pretax calendar-year earnings less representation fees. It says a typical assumption is 10% for agents, 10% for managers and 5% for lawyers, although an actor may not have all three. That note describes the 2024 edition; it should not be assumed to apply identically to every historical list.
Release year may differ from payment year
For its 2024 ranking, Forbes Australia said project compensation was credited to the year a project was released, even when upfront fees had been paid years earlier or back-end participation and buyouts might be paid later. As Forbes put it: “Actors were credited for all compensation on projects in the year they were released, despite the fact that often up front fees are paid when a movie is filmed, which could be years in the past, and back-end participation or buyouts are often paid several years into the future.” This timing rule is specific to the 2024 methodology account; historical editions may use different measurement windows.
Rank #3
The annual series is useful for answering who ranked first in each year, but raw totals do not make a clean year-to-year comparison: measurement periods, fee treatment and the mix of project and business income can vary.
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Rank #4
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