USA TODAY International Edition
Worth vs. salary may surprise,
Spielberg heads the ‘ Bankability Index’ that measures financial impact
LOS ANGELES When it comes to Hollywood salaries, what you make can bear little resemblance to what you’re worth.
Such are the findings of a study released today on how much money the industry’s biggest names bring to their movies.
A- list stars and directors bring home paychecks that dwarf the measurable dollars they generate for their projects, suggests the “Bankability Index,” a study of the financial impact of the film industry by data- crunching firm the- numbers.com. The three- year study examined box- office and video revenue of projects involving more than 65,000 employees over their careers, from directors and actors to sound designers and set decorators. The figures were adjusted for inflation and weighted based on studio billing, with top stars and directors taking the largest share.
Director Steven Spielberg tops the list, generating $ 27.4 million in box- office revenue and video rentals a year, or $ 13.7 million per movie, the study finds. Actor Samuel L. Jackson is second with $ 24.4 million ($ 6.2 million per movie), followed by Johnny Depp at $ 24.3 million ($ 10.5 million).
Compare that with Forbes magazine’s annual list of the industry’s highest- paid actors. Robert Downey Jr. tops them all at an estimated $ 75 million for 2013. Yet the Bankability Index lists him as only Hollywood’s ninth- biggest revenue draw, generating $ 20.6 million a year for his movies. The next highest- paid actors on Forbes’ list aren’t even on the index’s top 10: Channing Tatum is second at $ 60 million, followed by Hugh Jackman ($ 55 million), Mark Wahlberg ($ 52 million) and Dwayne Johnson ($ 46 million).
The study does not address the disparity between salary and worth. Bruce Nash of thenumbers.com says the index ex- amines Hollywood as if it were a single sales firm, with the top salesman, Spielberg, “driving the bottom line more than anyone else, so he would be the top employee.
“We understand that big names command huge salaries and drive business. We wanted to look at
everybody in the industry as if it were one giant, corporate body.”
Unsung employees abound, the study finds. Composer Hans Zimmer ( Man of Steel) is No. 6 on the index, worth $ 22.6 million a year.
“What became clear,” Nash says, “was how important the other players are. You can see how important it is to get these prolific talents who fly under the radar.”