Best-paid actors worldwide 2021, by income

As of August 2021, Daniel Craig was the best-paid actor worldwide with an estimated income of 100 million U.S. dollars after, earlier that year, Netflix bought the rights for two sequels of "Knives Out" (2019). The sum includes an estimated back-end box office participation, considering how much each movie released on streaming would have grossed in theaters. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson followed with 50 million dollars after Amazon Studios acquired the rights for his upcoming film "Red One."

The most bankable movie stars

When it comes to blockbusters on the big screen – as opposed to subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services – some actors played protagonists in so many lucrative films that they were ranked based on the cumulative box office gross of the highlights in their filmography. Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, and Tom Hanks were among the highest-grossing leading actors of all time in the United States and Canada as of mid-2022. Movies starring each of them collectively amassed more than five billion dollars at the North American box office, a term that excludes Mexico and includes Canada and the U.S.

Big-budget productions and lower salaries

Hollywood is also famous for producing some of the most expensive film productions worldwide, including installments of franchises such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Avengers, and Star Wars. However, not all the personnel benefits from the increasing budgets. The average hourly earnings of employees in the motion picture and sound recording industries in the U.S. decreased by three percent in 2021.