Akshay Kumar and Salman Khan were ranked seventh and ninth in the Forbes' list of highest-paid male actors globally. Actor George Clooney topped the list; thanks to the $1 billion purchase of his Casamigos Tequila, Clooney scored a career high pretax paycheck of $239 million between June 1, 2017 and June 1, 2018, wrote Forbes. Clooney, who hasn’t starred in a Hollywood movie since 2016 crime thriller Money Monster, sold the Casamigos tequila company he co-founded to British spirits company Diageo (DGE.L) in June 2017.
His on-and-off screen earnings eclipsed Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who came in at No 2 with an estimated $124 million thanks to Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and other projects.
Wrote Forbes on Salman Khan, “This Bollywood mainstay continues to produce and star in hits such as Tiger Zinda Hai, cashing in on backend profits. Coupled with a slew of endorsements from Suzuki motorcycles to Chlormint gum, he remains one of India’s top earners.” Akshay Kumar, according to the magazine, is, “One of Bollywood’s leading men has transitioned to socially-conscious roles, such as Toilet, a comedy supporting government campaigns to improve sanitation, and Padman, about a guy hoping to provide inexpensive sanitary pads to rural communities. He still mints millions from backend profits and endorsing some 20 brands, including Tata and Eveready.”
The top 10 actors earned some $784 million collectively, according to Forbes, once again dwarfing the top 10 women who earned a cumulative $186 million in the same period. Scarlett Johansson topped the annual list released last week with $40.5 million in pre-tax earnings.
-Inputs from Reuters