Who Is The Highest-Paid Actor In Hollywood in 2022
Acting is a glamorous job. Actors lead enviable lives. They get to walk down red carpets in designer couture and buy mansions most could only dream of. With A-listers earning millions of dollars per year, we mere mortals are curious to find out who is the highest-paid actor in Hollywood in 2022.
Some actors stand out, not just because of their talent but because of their pay demand. The demand for their skills is so high, that directors and filmmakers alike are willing to pay millions of dollars for their acting contributions.
The highest-paid actors in Hollywood receive astronomical figures for their services and are certainly the highest-paid actors in the world. Since the turn of the millennium, A-listers have steadily seen their salaries increase per movie, with more emphasis placed on star power and high revenue.
Here are the top 10 highest-paid actors per movie role in Hollywood in 2022.
Who Is The Highest Paid Actor In Hollywood (2022)
10. Will Smith
Highest Salary For A Movie Role: $40 Million
Long gone are the days of Will Smith living with his “auntie and uncle in Bel-Air”. Will now commands an enviable salary impressive enough for him to enjoy his very own real-life mansion with his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, and their kids.
Will Smith rose to prominence in the 1990s as a member of the television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and in 1996 he made the transition from television to the big screen with his performance in Independence Day. This established him as an actor, and he went on to star in Men in Black, I Robot, I Am Legend, and The Pursuit of Happiness.
In November 2021, Will Smith starred in the title role of King Richard, the father of tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams. Smith was reportedly paid as much as $40 million for the role, according to The Hollywood Reporter. However, the actor, who also served as a producer on the film, didn’t keep all of his hefty paychecks to himself.
Apparently, the actor personally wrote bonus checks to other members of the cast and crew, including actors Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton, who played Venus and Serena, Tony Goldwyn, Jon Bernthal, and Aunjanue Ellis, among others. “It was a much more difficult process than anybody thought they were signing up for,” Smith said of the decision. “I just felt that it was fair.”
In March 2022 the actor received an Oscar for his performance as Richard Williams. However, the day will forever be remembered for the wrong reasons. The actor reacted badly to a joke from comedian Chris Rock and he abruptly stepped up on stage and slapped the comedian.
09. Denzel Washington
Highest Salary For A Movie Role: $40 million
Denzel has an incredible box-office track record. Therefore, it is no surprise that he was able to demand a $40 million salary for playing the corrupt detective in Warner Bros’ The Little Things opposite Jared Leto. While the film performed poorly at the box office due to its early pandemic-era release, Washington still made history with the highest pay bump in his career. Before this movie, his rate was US$20 million per film. He will also soon appear as Macbeth in Joel Coen’s new adaptation The Tragedy of Macbeth, although his salary for that is yet to be disclosed.
08. Paul Rudd
Highest Salary For A Movie Role: $41 Million
Since his 1990s debut in Sisters, Paul Rudd has appeared in dozens of films. In the 2000s, he was mostly seen in lighthearted romantic comedies such as Dinner for Schmucks, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Anchorman. In 2019, he shifted gears to play more action-packed drama roles in major Marvel films. Rudd reportedly received a total of $41 million for his work in Marvel for his roles in The Wasp, Antman, and The Avengers: End Game.
07. Chris Evans
Highest Salary For A Movie Role: $43 million
Chris Evans, another Marvel superhero, and our beloved Captain America. Many people may be a little surprised that Chris Evans features in our search for who is the highest-paid actor in Hollywood in 2022. Considering that he started his career much later than most other actors on this highest-paid actors list.
His breakthrough came in the 2001 film Biodiversity: Wild About Life! This was a 1997 educational film co-produced by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. He made minor television appearances in the early 2000s.
But, in 2005, he played the human torch in the film series Fantastic Four, and he became known to everyone as a superhero from then on. He was cast as a new member of the Marvel family in 2011, and his career took off from there. The star earned $43 million from the Avengers franchise alone.
06. Adam Sandler
Highest Salary For A Movie Role: $57 million
Adam Sandler has been one of the highest-paid actors for many years. The actor progressed from being a cast member on Saturday Night Live to roles in a slew of comedy films in the 1990s and more serious roles in the early 2000s.
He has not only starred in films, but he has also produced and directed several of them. The 2019 American crime thriller film Uncut Gems stars Adam Sandler as Howard Ratner, a Jewish-American jeweler and gambling addict in New York City’s Diamond District who must retrieve an expensive gem he purchased to pay off his debts.
The film that was released in 2019 made him a whopping $57 Million alone.
05. Jackie Chan
Highest Salary For A Movie Role: $58 million
Jackie Chan, one of the nicest and most well-liked actors on the planet, began his career in the 1990s. As a child, he landed minor roles and quickly rose to prominence for his incredible stunt work. His big break in America came with roles in Rush Hour, Around the World in 80 Days, Shanghai Noon, and Karate Kid. He made $58 million in 2019 for his roles in Journey to China: The Mystery of the Iron Mask Master and The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang.
04. Robert Downey Jr.
Highest Salary For A Movie Role: $66 million
Robert earned $66 million in 2019 for his role as Tony Stark in Marvel’s Iron Man. The star received $55 million from Avengers: End Game alone. He is the second most-watched box office star of all time, with over $14 billion in earnings from his films. He appeared in Chaplin and Less Than Zero in the early 1990s, but he was in and out of prison for drug addiction until his life changed. In 2008 he was cast in the role of Iron Man.
03. Chris Hemsworth
Highest Salary For A Movie Role: $76 million
Marvel has created some of the highest-paid actors in history. Chris Hemsworth, best known for his role as Thor, began his career in Australia, playing minor roles. His breakthrough came in 2011 with Thor. According to Forbes magazine’s most recent list of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood, he earned a reported salary of $76.4 million from Marvel films alone. Chris Hemsworth is 3rd on our countdown to find who is the highest-paid actor in Hollywood in 2022.
02. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
Highest Paid Salary For A Movie Role: $89 million
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is an A-lister when it comes to the highest-paid actors. However, he’s dropped to second place this year. The actor made $89 million just for his role in the Fast And Furious franchise.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was born in 1972 into a professional wrestling family. After his college football career was cut short due to an injury, he entered the ring with the WWE.
He won the WWE Heavyweight title several times as “The Rock.” Johnson then turned his wrestling fame into a film career, appearing in films such as The Mummy Returns in 2001 and
Tooth Fairy in 2010.
Later projects include the HBO show
Ballers (for which he was paid $700,000 per episode) and the Jumanji
franchises (he earned $23 Million upfront). Not to mention his voice as demigod Maui in Moana.
01. Daniel Craig
Highest Salary For A Movie Role: $100 million
It’s been 15 years since Daniel Craig first took on the role of James Bond. His first Bond film was 2006’s “Casino Royale.” He’s gone on to play the role a total of five times, including the latest No Time to Die, which will be his last outing as James Bond.
Daniel’s run as Bond has generated well over $3 billion in ticket sales alone. It has earned at least several billion more from product placement, licensing, and syndication deals.
So it made sense that the film’s producers would continue to throw piles of money at Daniel to stay in the picture for as many movies as possible. Daniel has earned a lot of “00’s” on his paycheck playing Bond. He reportedly has earned a combined sum of $100 million for his role in the franchise, which would make him the highest-paid actor of all time for just a single role.
There you have it. We have answered the question of who is the highest-paid actor in Hollywood in 2022? Daniel Craig has earned an absolute fortune as James Bond and is currently the highest-paid actor in America.
What do you think about the astronomical salaries actors earn these days? We would like to hear from you. Please comment below.
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