Forbes has published the list of highest paid actors of 2018. The list calculates earnings of actors and actresses from June 1, 2017 to June 1, 2018. The Forbes list includes actors from Hollywood and Bollywood which reemphasizes that fact that only Indian film industry could be compared to American industry. Actors from other film industry of other countries like China, United Kingdom, Nigeria stand nowhere in comparison to Hollywood and Bollywood. In the top 10, two actors were from Bollywood while the rest were from Hollywood. This also indicates that Bollywood has long way to go to make a deeper global presence. Some Bollywood movies has performed exceptionally well on global scale, especially in large emerging markets like China but it has long road to travel.
George Clooney, the famed actor who consistently makes to Time’s list of 100 most influential people in the world was ranked first in the Forbes list. His total earning for the given period is 239 million dollars. Although, earnings of Clooney were not from movies, in fact he did not appear in any movie between the given periods. Diageo, British multinational alcoholic beverages company purchased Casamigos, a tequila company co-founded in 2013 by George Clooney, Rande Gerber, and Mike Meldman for 700 million. All of Clooney’s income was from this purchase.
On the Bollywood front, Akshay Kumar came at seventh spot on the Forbes list and first from Bollywood. Total earning of Akshay Kumar for the given period was 40.5 million dollars. His earning was due to three back to back hits in the given period. Akshay Kumar starred as lead in Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, Padman, Gold and all of them were hit on box office. Additionally, he endorsed around 20 brands including Indian finance conglomerate Tata and battery manufacturer Eveready. Last year, Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan were ahead in the list with 38 million dollars and 37 million dollars earning respectively. Akshay Kumar’s earning last year was 35.5 million dollars which 5 million dollar less than earnings of this year. He has outperformed ‘Khan Trio (Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan)’ in last year with back to back hits. His movies also got good reviews from critics for raising prevailing social issues.
The other player in the top 10 list is Salman Khan. He appears 9th on the Forbes list with earnings of 38.5 million dollars which is 1.5 million more in comparison to his last year earnings. The performance of Tiger Zinda Hai and Race 3 was good on box office despite negative reviews from critics. Endorsement deals for consumer items like Suzuki motorcycles and Chlormint gum also helped Salman Khan in maintaining second position in Bollywood and ninth position internationally. The biggest loser this year is Shahrukh Khan who has only one release this year. Jab Harry Met Sejal, his only release got negative reviews from critics and did perform well on box office. The foreign industry markets, on which Shahrukh Khan’s movies are heavily dependent for earning, were also not good for Jab Harry Met Sejal. Flopped show by Shahrukh Khan this year was also visible in declining brand endorsement rankings.
So, as per Forbes list, Akshay Kumar is the new king of Indian box office. His movies are not only performing well financially but also got positive reviews from critics. This could be worrying for the ‘Khan Trio’ because they had maintained a virtual hegemony over box office for almost a decade.
