We might be in the middle of a global pandemic with unemployment on the rise and the world’s economy plunging into recession, but we still can’t help ourselves when it comes to our fascination with seeing how the other half live, which is why Forbes’ annual list of Hollywood’s highest-paid actors always generates so much interest.
Dwayne Johnson took the top spot for the second consecutive year and third overall after raking in an eye-watering $87.5 million despite not even having a movie scheduled for release this year, which just goes to show the strength of the 48 year-old’s personal brand. Meanwhile, in recent years, the list has tended to be dominated by the stars of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but in 2020, only one of the franchise’s many actors cracked the Top 10.
Vin Diesel found himself in fifth place after earning $54 million, and he doesn’t even play a live-action role in the MCU. Previously, the lucrative back-end deals secured by Marvel’s biggest names have often seen them appear in Forbes’ rankings, with the success of Avengers: Endgame in particular being the driving force behind Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr., Bradley Cooper, Chris Evans and Paul Rudd all featuring in last year’s edition.
Downey Jr., in particular, has been a regular fixture over the years, but it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that he’s missing out this time around after Dolittle bombed so hard at the box office, while Evans has gracefully bowed out as Captain America and Hemsworth won’t be returning as Thor until next year’s Love and Thunder.
And with the MCU currently in the midst of the longest gap between movies in a decade and November’s release of Black Widow marking the first time in ten years that the franchise has only released one new entry in a calendar year, next year’s Top 10 probably won’t feature any of the Avengers, either.