When Forbes listed the 100 Highest Paid Celebrities
2015, the list is not business as usual. The list still measures money earned
in one year, before management fees and taxes are subtracted, but the 2015 list
includes candidates from all corners of the globe. The variety on the 2015 list
is interesting, from Beyonce (#29 at 54.5 million), Jackie Chan (#38 at $50
million), Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova (#88 at $29.5), to Canadian
rapper Drake (#54 at 39.5 million). Thirty-two list members are from outside
the U. S. and 15 are from the U.K., including Gordon Ramsey,”the chef who ate
the world”, (#21 at $60 million) and singer-songwriter-musician Ed Sheeran (#27
at $57 million). Take a look at the top ten:
1. Floyd
Mayweather $300 million
2. Manny
Pacquiao $160 million
3. Katy
Perry $135 million
4. One
Direction $130 million
5. Howard
Stern $95 million
6. Garth
Brooks $90 million
7. James
Patterson $89 million
8. Robert
Downey Jr. $80 million
9. Taylor
Swift $80 million
10. Cristiano
Ronaldo $79.5 million
Katy Perry is part of the burgeoning batch of stars
cashing in on an increasingly global entertainment landscape. She used her
Super Bowl Globe to showcase her talents to audiences abroad. As part of her
Prismatic World Tour, she played 124 shows during our scoring period; 75 of
them took place abroad, in 27 different countries. According to her managers,
60% of her income now pours in from foreign markets.
Believe it or not, the Gender Gap applies to both
the celebrities on this list as it does to the wider society. Only 16 of the
world’s highest paid celebrities are women, including Perry and Taylor Swift
among the top 10 list members. Women on the list made a combined total of $809
million dollars, while men made $4.35 billion. The UN estimates it will take 70
years to close the gender gap at the current rate.
One Direction takes the No. 4 spot for similar
reasons: The world’s biggest boy band played 74 dates over the past 12 months,
averaging seven-figure grosses at every stop, hitting every continent besides
Antarctica. Thanks to a strong touring drive—and profound changes in the concert
business, spurred by the rise of the global middle class—the group earned more
than twice as much as the Rolling Stones.
Hollywood is benefiting from this sort of trend as
well. Avengers: Age of Ultron grossed $240 million in China, whose monthly box
office surpassed the U.S. for the first time this past February. Robert Downey,
Jr. (No. 8) earned double-digit millions for playing Iron Man in that film en
route to a career-high $80 million payday, tying him with Taylor Swift, whose
best-selling album 1989 moved 3.7 million units in 2014.
Taylor Swift won wide acclaim for slaying a giant. The singer wrote an open letter to Apple Music saying "please don't ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation". Apple bowed and Senior Vice President Eddy Cue tweeted "we hear you @taylorswift13", indicating that Apple Music would pay artists for streaming even during the customer's free trial period. How that for flexing your muscles.
Meanwhile, Vin Diesel (No. 43) banked $47 million
thanks to a back-end cut on Furious 7, which brought in $1.5 billion worldwide.
More than $1 billion of that sum came from abroad, including roughly $400
million in China, where it’s the highest-grossing film of all-time.
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