Show Them the Money: Best (Paid) Actors

Pay Will Smith a lot of money and he’ll bring in a lot of money.

Forbes magazine has just put out its list of Hollywood’s five highest paid actors. This covers the period from June 1, 2007 to June 1, 2008. Here’s the list, actor’s name followed by amount earned during the year–and remember it’s highest paid as in salary, NOT highest earning, as in whose movies earn the most:

1. Will Smith ($80 million)

2. Johnny Depp ($72 million)

3. (tie) Eddie Murphy and Mike Myers ($55 million)

5. Leonardo DiCaprio ($45 million)

Will Smith and Johnny Depp more than earned their keep last year; Smith’s I Am Legend took in $256.4 million at the box office and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End had a box office of $309.4 million (numbers from BoxOfficeMojo). DiCaprio doesn’t make blockbusters, but he pays off in prestige. As for Murphy and Myers? Well, I hope they have some good investments because they have an awful lot of rebuilding to do before they can even hope to earn half of what they got paid in the last year.