Vanity Fair has released their list of the highest-earning movie stars of the last year, which revealed some surprising entries. And some unsurprising ones.
Namely, that James Cameron now has enough money to buy himself a small planet to store his actors and script ideas. He raked in 248 million dollars from the back-end of Avatar…more than enough money to produce 20 different terrible science fiction movies like Sanctum, and that doesn’t even include the rest of the fees that he earned from previous royalties and movies. The top five consisted of Cameron, Johnny Depp – who earned 100 million dollars last year (including 20 million for the giant flop The Tourist), Steven Speilberg (who made most of his money from Universal-theme-park royalties and consulting fees), Christopher Nolan, and Leonardo DiCaprio (both for Inception). But the real surprise was in the top 10, where Taylor Lautner out-earned Robert Downey Jr.
Wait a minute, Taylor Lautner? The guy who managed to chew enough scenery and Sharkboy parts to manage a role in the lucrative but ridiculous franchise Twilight? He made more than Robert Downey Jr., with the fees from the last two Twilight movies and his starring turn in John Singleton’s thriller Abducted.
Basically, they’re going to try to make Taylor Lautner into the next Tom Cruise. A closeted guy playing action heroes and dating notable beards like Taylor Swift. Enjoy your money, while it lasts.
