Meet the International Movie Stars Who Make More Than Will Smith and Sandra Bullock
The international market has never been more important to the movie business than it is today — and some of the world’s most successful stars have found their audience outside the United States. Forbes has published its annual lists of the highest-paid actors and actresses, and while American actors top both lists (Dwayne Johnson and Jennifer Lawrence, respectively), performers from China and India made a very strong showing.
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As Forbes notes, a quarter of the male actors on its list of 20 hail from the global film market. One of those five is instantly recognizable to American audiences: Jackie Chan’s $61 million income last year — trailing only Johnson on the 2016 list — was generated largely in China. (He hasn’t had a live-action hit in America since the 2010 Karate Kid remake, but remains a prolific actor and producer in his home country.) The other four who made the cut are Indian actors: septugenarian Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan (who received a memorable namecheck in 2008 Best Picture Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire) at No. 18; aging heartthrob and film studio CEO Shah Rukh Khan at No. 8; Akshay Kumor, a box office sensation nicknamed the “Indian Jackie Chan,” at No. 10; and ever-popular leading man Salman Khan at No. 14. Although Bollywood does not bring in as much income as global markets like China and Japan, it is an enormous industry (India actually makes more movies than any other country) and its stars have tremendous brand power. Product endorsements make up a huge part of their substantial earnings.
The same is true for the one Indian actress to make Forbes‘ list of the ten top earners. Deepika Padukone, a newcomer to the annual ranking at No. 10, starred in the record-breaking Bollywood hit Bajirao Mastani in 2015, but Bollywood actresses are paid substantially less than Hollywood actresses per film. She made the list thanks to her dozen endorsement deals, which put her financially ahead of American stars like Sandra Bullock, Angelina Jolie, and Cate Blanchett (all of whom have made the cut in previous years, but not in 2016). The other global actress in the top ten, for the second year in a row, is Fan BingBing at No. 5. The Chinese actress had a small role in X-Men: Days of Future Past, but her income is mainly generated from hits in the massive Chinese film market — plus her ads for L’oreal and the Swiss jeweler Chopard.
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Overall, the list is still dominated by Hollywood stars, but global appeal and endorsement deals are an enormous part of their value, too. Johnson, for example, is a spokesman for Under Armour, and many of his hits — including San Andreas and Furious 7 — made even more money worldwide than they did at home.
