Highest Paid Actor List Topped By Surprise Name

Originally posted on Men's Journal | By Griff Griffin | Last updated 3/7/24

The ten highest paid actors of 2023 have been named, and the actor in first place might surprise you.

That actor is Adam Sandler who, last year, reportedly made a total of $73M from his films, according to a report by Forbes.

With last year seeing both Barbie and Oppenheimer gross a billion, you might expect to see Margot Robbie and Cillian Murphy top the charts. However, Sandler’s deals with Netflix have given his bank balance a serious boost.

In 2014, Sandler signed his first $250 million four-picture deal with Netflix. Since then, he’s starred in eight movies for the streamer and produced several more through his Happy Madison production company.

Not only that, but a bunch of old Sandler movies are licensed to Netflix, and according to Forbes, “In the first six months of 2023 alone, Netflix subscribers spent more than 500 million hours watching Sandler’s movies.”

His latest Netflix movie is Spaceman, in which Sandler stars as a lonely astronaut who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a giant alien spider played by Paul Dano.

Barbie star Margot Robbie isn’t far behind, though, with $59M earned in 2023. At 33, she’s also the youngest actor on the list by ten years.

Then we have a trio of leading men who all had stand-out years, with Tom Cruise, Ryan Gosling, and Matt Damon rounding out the top five.

In total, the ten highest-paid stars earned $449 million combined, and that figure mostly comes from films rather than TV. While Sandler’s Netflix deal sees him take top spot, it’s an outlier.

The surest way to earn big as an actor? Star in a single, globally successful hit movie. Easy.