Even after a challenging year for the entertainment world due to the pandemic, most artists, filmmakers, and entertainers managed to highlight their income.
In the top 25 there are only 4 celebrities, actress Reese Witherspoon in 12th place (101 million euros), Marta Kauffman, one of the producers of the series Friends who rose in the list to 17th place after the reunion episode of the cast (72 million euros), followed by screenwriter and producer Shonda Rhimes – creator of Grey’s Anatomy and producer of Bridgerton, on Netflix – (71 million euros) and, finally, in 25th place, the singer Taylor Swift (46 million euros).
Sports
The result highlights two factors: the first is the pandemic’s reflection on individual sports athletes’ gains. Tennis players, boxers, and MMA fighters fell on the list, as their events were canceled, and they did not have a fixed salary like athletes within clubs. The second important factor to be highlighted is how much the popularity of basketball and football will affect the result of the Forbes list.
The two sports, not the most popular on the planet, should dominate the top of the Forbes list for several years. Want to go deeper into earnings? OLBG presents which sports stars earn the most per minute which is a fun way to see how much time they spend on their respective field compared the money they earn. Although this doesn’t account for the time spend practicing.
With salaries increasingly boosted by the new media contracts signed by the clubs, soccer and basketball players will remain on the lists. Likewise, the massive presence on social networks helps bring more money to these stars with advertising actions.
Football and basketball have never made so much money. Your athletes have never won as much as they do now. The logic of making money in sports follows the popularity of sports and athletes. The pandemic has only accentuated these differences.
Lionel Messi – Soccer – $130M
LeBron James – Basketball – $121.2M
Cristiano Ronaldo – Soccer – $115M
Neymar – Soccer – $95M
Stephen Curry – Basketball – $92.8M
Kevin Durant – Basketball – $92.1M
Roger Federer – Tennis – $90.7M
Canelo Alvarez – Boxing – $90M
Tom Brady – Football – $83.9M
Giannis Antetokounmpo – Basketball – $80.9M
Cinema and TV
The first two highest-paid personalities entered the 2022 ranking for selling part of their rights. This is the case of Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings films and first on the list with an estimated 509 million euros, and Bruce Springsteen, with 383 million euros, who recently sold his music catalog to Sony.
Hollywood actors are the highest paid globally, but only some are paid the same amount. Some can earn much more than others, considering issues such as box office, projection, and fame.
The year 2022 was profitable for stars like Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Leonardo DiCaprio, who starred in new films. Another star appearing among the highest-paid stars is Joaquin Phoenix, who will make the sequel to Joker. But cinema goes beyond that, as shown by the list provided by Forbes, with values in euros.
Peter Jackson – 509 million euros
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson – 237 million euros
Tyler Perry – 144 million euros
Trey Parker and Matt Stone – 184 million euros
Reese Witherspoon – 101 million euros
Chuck Lorre – 89 million euros
Dick Wolf – 75 million euros
Kevin Bright, Marta Kauffman, and David Crane – 72 million euros
Shonda Rhimes – 72 million euros
Greg Berlanti – 66 million euros
Music
Making a living as a full-time musician is notoriously tricky, but people still try, and a tiny percentage become rich. For millennia, live performance has been how most musicians earn an income, but that disappeared when the pandemic hit in March 2020.
Fortunately for these 25 highest-paid musicians worldwide, there are other ways to bring in the music—sustenance for home.
Bruce Springsteen – 383 million euros
Jay-Z -298 million euros
Kanye West – 206 million euros
Paul Simon – 176 million euros
Ryan Tedder – 140 million euros
Bob Dylan – 114 million euros
Red Hot Chili Peppers – 102 million euros
Sean “Diddy” Combs – 79 million euros
Neil Young – 70 million euros
Lindsey Buckingham – 64 million euros
Mötley Crüe – 63 million euros
Beach Boys – 56 million euros
Blake Shelton – 48 million euros
Taylor Swift – 46 million euros