Eddie Murphy, Katherine Heigl top list of stars who make more than they’re worth
If you’re talking return on investment, don’t talk about Eddie Murphy and Katherine Heigl. Forbes magazine rates the most over-paid stars in the Hollywood firmament.
Eddie Murphy, once a box office titan, has reached a new nadir: He's number one on Forbes magazine's list of the most overpaid actors in Hollywood. "Murphy's career has just collapsed," Forbes declares, citing such multiplex disasters as Imagine That, A Thousand Words and Meet Dave. Weighing box office receipts against paychecks, Forbes figured that for every dollar Murphy was paid for his last three pics, they returned an average of just $2.30.
And Katherine Heigl, whose string of hits in years past include Knocked-Up, 27 Dresses and The Ugly Truth, is right behind Murphy. With a per-picture paycheck of a reported $12 million, Heigl has not been bringing crowds into theaters of late. Her most recent endeavor, One For The Money, earned only $37 million on an estimated $40 million budget.
Forbes staffer Dorothy Pomerantz used data on actors' earnings, factoring in production budgets and ticket sales of the last three films each actor starred in over the last three years, calculating the return on investment for the studios who pay his (or her) salary.
Rounding out the top 5 most overpaid stars: Reese Witherspoon, Sandra Bullock and Jack Black.