Star of Tower Heist joined by Reese Witherspoon and Katherine Heigl in 2012 breakdown of underperformers at the box office
Ben Child
Well-known Hollywood figures
Eddie Murphy, Katherine Heigl and
Reese Witherspoon have suffered the indignity of being named top of
Forbes magazine’s annual list of the most overpaid actors in the world.
Murphy, who was commanding $20m a movie around the turn of the
millennium, returns just $2.30 for every $1 he is paid, according to
Forbes. Such meagre financial clout means he is considered the most
overpaid actor in Hollywood in 2012, with the news coming on the back of
flops such as
Meet Dave and
Imagine That. Even his 2011 critical hit
Tower Heist, which was seen as something of a comeback vehicle for the
Beverly Hills Cop star, was not a resounding box-office smash, earning $152m on a $75m production budget.
Beverly Hills flop …
Eddie Murphy, officially Hollywood’s most overpaid actor for 2012, with girlfriend Paige Butcher. Photograph: Danny Moloshok/Reuters
Second place on
the list goes to newcomer Heigl, who is said
to return $3.40 for every $1 she receives from Hollywood bean counters. After turning heads in comedy hits such as 2007′s
Knocked Up, the actor has appeared in a slew of box-office romcom bombs such as
One for the Money, which took just $37m.
Reese Witherspoon, surprisingly, makes third place on the list, returning $3.90 for every $1 she is paid. The Oscar-winner appeared in box-office turkey
How Do You Know in 2010 ($50m on a whopping $120m budget), period romance
Water for Elephants in 2011 ($117m on a $38m budget) and romantic comedy spy film
This Means War this year (a rather better $156m on a $65m budget).
Another Oscar-winner,
Sandra Bullock, finds herself in fourth place on the list, returning $5 for every $1 she is paid. Her 2009 comedy
All About Steve, which took just $40m worldwide, tended to drag her down.
Jack Black ($5.20 for every $1 paid) features in fifth thanks largely to 2011′s
The Big Year, which hauled in just $7m.
Elsewhere on the
top 10, the familiar names come thick and fast.
Nicolas Cage is in sixth spot, returning $6 for every $1 he is paid, followed by
Adam Sandler and
Denzel Washington in joint seventh ($6.30 for every $1).
Ben Stiller ($6.50 for every $1) and
Sarah Jessica Parker ($7 per $1 paid) round out the top 10.
Murphy et al can take solace in the fact that they do at least return
more money for investors than they receive in income, according to
Forbes, which looked at actors’ three most recent films in as many years
for its study. The “winner” of the 2011 rundown, Drew Barrymore,
famously returned just 40 cents for every $1 she was paid. Perhaps
unsurprisingly, the latter does not qualify for this year’s list because
Forbes says she has not appeared in starring roles in three
wide-released films in the past three years.
Another missing figure from this year’s report is
Will Ferrell, who was named the most overpaid actor for two years running in 2009 and 2010.
Original Source Article : guardian.co.uk
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