Forbes: Vaughn tops Ultimate Star Payback List

By Nancy Tartaglione-Vialatte

The $20 million paycheck club in Hollywood is shrinking, and for good reason, says Forbes: The highest-paid performers are not giving studios good returns on their investment. At the top of Forbes Ultimate Star Payback list is Vince Vaughn – Will Smith tops the magazine’s Best-Paid Actor list although he is 21st in terms of payback – whose films earned $14.73 for every dollar he was paid. Indeed, low salaries drive Forbes’ list.

Vaughn, until recently, stuck to a relatively low salary in films that had modest budgets but did very well at the worldwide box office worldwide.

Stars like Will Ferrell, Jim Carrey and Nicole Kidman (the worst earner for the second year in a row) landed at the bottom by taking big pay for films that flopped.

Still, big stars Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and George Clooney all came out rosy on the list because they took pay cuts to appear in “Ocean's Twelve” and “Ocean's Thirteen.” Their returns reflect that. Roberts paid back $32.50 for every dollar she made on “Ocean's Twelve.” Damon posted his best return for his work on Ocean's Thirteen, $20.80 for every dollar he made.

To find each star's payback number, Forbes looked at his or her last three films that opened wide before Jan. 1, 2008. Animated movies were eliminated as were any movie in which the actor had a small or cameo role.

The three movies for each star had to have been made in the last five years and each actor had to have earned at least $5 million for one of his or her three films. Thus, up-and-comers like Jonah Hill and Seth Rogen didn't make the cut.

To calculate payback figures, Forbes took half of each film's worldwide box office then added the first three months of wholesale DVD revenues. Then, Forbes subtracted the budget (including upfront compensation for all actors except the actor in question) to derive the film's gross income.

After that, the actor's total compensation was divided into that gross income, to get the actor's payback figure for the film. The payback for each actor was averaged to calculate the ultimate payback.

Others on the top end of the list include Tobey Maguire at number 2, Roberts at number 3, Pitt at number 4 and Naomi Watts in fifth place.

The bottom five (there are 35 stars on the list total) was completed by Jennifer Lopez, Cameron Diaz, Tom Cruise, Jennifer Garner and Kidman.