Eddie Murphy: The Most Overpaid Actor In Hollywood

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Eddie Murphy Tops Our List Of The Most Overpaid Actors In Hollywood
By Dorothy Pomerantz - Forbes Staff

Poor Eddie Murphy desperately needs a comeback. Remember back in the day when he was so funny on Saturday Night Live and in movies like Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop? His voice work has helped make movies like Shrek and Mulan tolerable for adults, and even his family-friendly movies, like Norbit and Dr. Dolittle, were good for some chuckles.

But lately, Murphy’s career has just collapsed. Imagine That, A Thousand Words and Meet Dave were colossal flops. Last year’s Tower Heist, which was supposed to be something of a return to form for the comedian, failed to wow at the box office, earning $153 million on an estimated budget of $75 million. (In order to even come close to turning a profit, a movie has to earn twice its production budget in ticket sales, plus the millions spent on marketing.) Murphy then backed out of hosting the Oscars, which didn’t help his reputation.

His string of flops lands Murphy at the top of our Most Overpaid Actors list for 2012. We estimate that for every $1 Murphy was paid for his last three films, they returned an average of $2.30 at the box office.

To compile our list, we used data on actors’ earnings gathered for our Celebrity 100 list. Box office grosses and budget estimates are from Box Office Mojo. We looked at the last three films each actor starred in over the last three years that opened in more than 2,000 theaters, calculating the return on investment for the studios who pay his (or her) salary.



Ranking second behind Murphy is a newcomer to our list: Katherine Heigl. For every dollar she was paid on her last three movies, they earned an average of $3.40.

After hits like Knocked-Up, 27 Dresses and The Ugly Truth, Heigl’s quote shot up to the $12 million range. Unfortunately, the films she’s made at that price point have failed to deliver. Her most recent film, One For The Money, earned only $37 million on an estimated $40 million budget. Heigl needs to step away from the expensive star vehicles and rebuild her career. Her next release is the ensemble pic The Big Wedding, which hits theaters in April. Featuring Robert DeNiro, Susan Sarandon and Amanda Seyfried, the movie could give Heigl a chance to show how funny she can be when the pressure is off.

In past versions of our overpaid actors roundup, we looked at each actor’s films over the last five years. This year, we cut back to the last three years to give the list a more contemporary focus.

That dropped Drew Barrymore from the top 10, but not because she has anchored any smashes lately. Barrymore was our worst-performing actor last year — her films earned only 40 cents for each $1 she was paid. However she hasn’t starred in three big releases over the last three years. We don’t count ensemble films where there is no clear star like Barrymore’s 2009 film He’s Just Not That Into You, which was actually a hit.



Reese Witherspoon ranks third on our list with an average $3.90 return for every $1 she was paid. Witherspoon is one of the most popular actresses in Hollywood, but her choices lately have been questionable, like 2010′s How Do You Know. With a ridiculously high budget of $120 million — a big chunk of which went to salaries for Witherspoon and big-name co-stars Paul Rudd, Jack Nicholson and Owen Wilson — the romantic comedy never had a chance of turning a profit. It grossed just $49 million at the box office, making it one of the worst-performing films of 2010.

Her most recent film, This Means War, didn’t help much. The $65 million action comedy did OK, earning $157 million worldwide, but it wasn’t enough to get Witherspoon off of our most overpaid list.



Sandra Bullock makes a surprise entry in fourth place with a $5 return for every $1 she was paid. In 2009 Bullock starred in one of the biggest films of the year, The Blind Side. Not only did it earn $310 million at the box office globally, it was made for just $30 million, making it one of the most profitable films of the year. It was also a big earner for Bullock, who had a profit-sharing deal on the project. But her two other films of the last three years were stinkers: All About Steve and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.



Rounding out the top five is Jack Black, whose films returned only $5.20 for every $1 he was paid. Last year’s comedy The Big Year barely registered at the box office. Big-name stars like Black, Steve Martin and Owen Wilson couldn’t overcome poor reviews and a less than sexy topic — birdwatching. It earned only $7 million.

and here are the other 5 on the list:


Nicolas Cage

Nicolas Cage works a lot. Over the past three years he has been in 10 films, and that's not even counting his animation voice work. Unfortunately, most of these films haven't done very well at the box office. Last year's Drive Angry grossed only $29 million worldwide.


Adam Sandler

Adam Sandler is one of the few actors who can still command $20 million per film. Usually, that's a pretty reasonable payday for someone whose comedies are consistent performers. But when a film flops, Sandler starts to look like a bad bet. Grown Ups was a huge hit in 2010 but Jack and Jill disappointed at the box office.


Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington's films do fine at the box office, but he generally commands an outsized paycheck. He made a different deal on Flight (which came out too late to count for this year's list), taking a small upfront payment in exchange for a larger share of the profits. The film has so far earned $84 million on a $30 million budget.


Ben Stiller

Ben Stiller's movies have been doing pretty well at the box office. But he earns so much money per film that one miss can make him seem overpaid. That's what happened with Tower Heist. The 2011 film earned $153 million at the global box office, but it cost $75 million to make, which means it barely returned any kind of profit.


Sarah Jessica Parker

As long as Sarah Jessica Parker stick to playing Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City, the money rolls in. As soon as she steps outside of that zone though, things get tougher. Her 2011 film I Don't Know How She Does It only cost $25 million to make, but it barely earned $30 million at the box office.

and that's your look at the Full List of The Top 10 Most Overpaid Stars in Hollywood

credit: forbes.com

[Zoneboy]

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[Torgo]

ALL Hollywood actors are overpaid.

[simmytbone]

Originally Posted by Zoneboy

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Edit and posted it up at the top

[cleverfun3000]

At this point he is making ten's of millions of dollars for his own bank account as his career is running on fumes. He shows up to work, goes thru the motions and GETS PAID. Who among us would refuse to take endless offers of many millions of dollars per film because the films were of straight-to-dvd quality? I know I wouldn't. I would do just what Eddie is doing - making untold millions on unbelievably poor movies and cashing corporate sized checks behind half an effort.

[yankeesrj12]

Sandra Bullock was in about 20 minutes of the 129 minute Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (which was extremely long and incredibly boring). The whole movie cost a total of $40 million dollars, so I can't imagine she was paid THAT much, especially since she was in it for a limited amount of time.

[TMC]

http://lebeauleblog.com/2012/01/31/w...-eddie-murphy/

By this point in the “What the Hell Happened?” series, a pattern has developed. The career usually begins with TV roles or modeling gigs. Then a big break, super stardom and a stint on the A-list.

Sometimes the celebrity rides on the top of the a-list for years. Other times, they come crashing down relatively quickly. Eventually, their time in the spotlight ends. Sometimes they flame out in a spectacularly public fashion. Other times, they just walk away.

Eddie Murphy’s story breaks from the formula. Sure, there is a rise and fall. But in Murphy’s case, there’s not just one.

Murphy rose to superstardom, slipped into irrelevance, reinvented himself as a family friendly leading man, had a scandal, dropped into obscurity, and then threatened to stage a come back multiple times without ever actually coming back.

In fact, that’s one of the reasons I wanted to tackle Murphy as soon as possible. He was dangerously close to a come back as recently as a few months ago. Word of mouth on Tower Heights was that it would reignite Murphy’s career. His friend, Tower Heights director Brett Ratner, hired him to host the Academy Awards. Murphy was poised for a comeback.

Then Tower Heights disappointed at the box office, Ratner quit the Academy Awards show in scandal and Murphy quietly excused himself. The comeback was cancelled.

But before I get too far ahead of myself, let’s start at the beginning of the story.