'Forbes' Releases Most Overpaid actors of 2011; Drew Barrymore Tops List
While she has charmed audiences with her portrayals of women-child characters over the years, Drew Barrymore is not having a good Hollywood moment.
Being ranked first in "Forbes" as the most overpaid actor of the year is sure to do some damage to her reputation. Published on Thursday, the publication explained on their web site how the ranking was calculated.
"We used data gathered for our annual Celebrity 100 list to calculate each star's estimated earnings on each film (including up-front pay and any earnings from the movie's box-office receipts and first year sales of DVDs). We then looked at each movie's estimated budget (not including marketing costs, which are susceptible to accounting chicanery) and box-office and DVD earnings to figure out an operating income for each film." reported the website.
"We added up each star's compensation on his or her last three films and the operating income on those films, and divided total operating income by the star's total compensation to come up with a return-on-investment number. The final number represents an average of how much a studio earns for every dollar paid," the web site's explanation adds.
Although, it doesn't take a lot of calculating to see that Barrymore's last 3 films haven't exactly been performing well in the box office. 2010's "Going the Distance" earned less that $18 million in ticket sales overall. 2009's performances in "Whip It" and "Everybody's Fine" did no better and thus contributed to the 36-year-old's (not-so) prime spot on the list.
Others included on the list are comedians Eddie Murphy and Will Ferrell. Ferrell has placed first in the same list for the last 2 years, this year he takes the third spot. Also making the list are Reese Witherspoon, Nicolas Cage, Denzel Washington and Nicole Kidman, proving that sometimes even these actors' star power is not enough to pull audience to the theatres.