Robert Downey Jr. is officially the world's highest-paid actor.
Forbes has published its annual Celebrity 100 list, aka a list of the celebrities that brought home the biggest paydays of the last twelve months. Based mainly on his best-known role as Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, Downey raked in a whopping $80 million, put him at #8 overall on the list.
Over the last twelve months, Downey has received paychecks from Marvel for his work in Avengers: Age of Ultron and next year's Captain America: Civil War, which is currently filming in Atlanta. Civil War marks his sixth turn as Tony Stark for Marvel (not counting his cameo in The Incredible Hulk).
Forbes' 2015 Celebrity 100 list is a fascinating cross-section of pop culture, with plenty of surprises. Not among them is Floyd Mayweather's top spot at $300 million, which largely came from his boxing match against #2 earner Manny Pacquiao. But sure to astonish is Katy Perry's #3 spot with $135 million, making her the top-grossing music artist, ahead of One Direction (#4), Garth Brooks (#6) and Taylor Swift (#9).
James Patterson's empire of novels came in seventh with $89m, while the highest-paid talk show is Ellen DeGeneres at $75m. Musicians and sports stars dominate the top half of the list, with a shockingly small number of actors present. The second-highest paid actor, for example, is Jennifer Lawrence way down at #34, with $52m. The other two actors in the top 50, by the way, both have recent Marvel films on their résumés, too; both Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel starred as CGI characters in last summer's Guardians of the Galaxy.
Many of the list's surprises can be chalked up to an overhaul in how Forbes compiles the list. This year, the publication reportedly went international with its results, in addition to jettisoning celebs who work behind the scenes, such as Hollywood directors and producers.
As for Robert Downey, Jr., he's in a unique position with Marvel Studios that sets him apart from other stars like Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Evans and Chris Pratt, who all signed multi-picture deals. Downey was Marvel's first bona fide superstar and remains the company's frontman (Marvel Comics recently promoted Iron Man to company mascot over Spider-Man, to match his popularity on the silver screen). His popularity affords him the ability to sign up on a film-by-film basis, so outside of Civil War and the third Avengers movie, his future with the studio is unknown.
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