The Most Overpaid Celebrities

From forbes, Los Angeles - Once you’re in Hollywood's A-list earnings club, it’s hard to get kicked out, no matter how badly your films perform at the box office.

Case in point: Oscar winner Nicole Kidman. She earned an estimated $15 million for her latest film, The Golden Compass, known around the studio lot these days as the biggest turkey of 2007. It grossed a dreary $26 million when it debuted stateside last weekend, though its reported budget flirted with $200 million. (That's Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings territory.) The film garnered a respectable $55 million overseas since its release, but it's unlikely the international box office will salvage this expensive pic.

The Golden Compass isn't a one-off for Kidman. In fact, its her fourth big box office dud. For every dollar she was paid for her last three films (excluding Compass and Margot at the Wedding), her flicks returned a measly $8 on average to the studios. Compare that with less expensive A-listers like Angelina Jolie, whose rate skirts $10 million a picture, and whose last 3 films grossed $15 on average for every dollar she earned.

Kidman isn't alone in the overpaid celebrity category, according to Forbes' Ultimate Star Payback list of the most bankable actors in Hollywood. To compile the list, Forbes examined the salaries, budgets and returns for films headlined by some of the biggest stars in the industry. The first step in calculating our payback figures required adding up the film's worldwide box office and U.S. DVD revenues for films released prior to June 2007. We then subtracted the budget (which includes the upfront compensation for actors) for each film to derive net revenue.

Next, to calculate gross income, the actor's total compensation was divided into net revenue. The gross income for the last three movies for each actor was averaged to calculate his or her ultimate payback. We deliberately used gross income rather than net income in our analysis because the former is a better measure of a movie star's ability to generate income for a film.

Movie studios are famous for their accounting creativity. The further down the profit and loss statement you travel, the more room for chicanery. While there is little debate over a film's budget, marketing expenses are treated differently for almost every movie.

In Tinseltown, a film must be able to at least recover its production budget to be considered a box office success. The only film on the list that didn't recover its costs at all was Gigli (2003) starring Jennifer Lopez, which reportedly cost $54 million to make but barely earned a fraction of that at the box office and on video.

Kidman actually wasn’t the worst earner on our list--that honor went to Russell Crowe. For every dollar he was paid for movies like Master & Commander and Cinderella Man, his films earned a measly $5. Don't fret for Crowe, though. He's already making inroads that should advance him up next year's list thanks to his newly released hit American Gangster--excluded from our calculations--which cost $100 million to make, yet has already earned $173 million worldwide at the box office, according to Box Office Mojo. And, of course, DVD sales have yet to be factored in.

Funny men fared particularly badly on our list of the most overpaid celebrities. Jim Carrey, whose talking butt cheeks used to mean millions at the box office, returned $8 for ever dollar he was paid. Carrey is feeling the sting for years of big-budget flops ( Fun with Dick and Jane, The Number 23). For his next film, Yes Man, he is said to be taking no money upfront. Instead, he’ll get paid on the backend only if the film makes money. It's a huge gamble, which speaks to Carrey's do-or-die earnings limbo.

Other high-profile comedians who posted disappointing bankable returns include Will Ferrell ($8) and Adam Sandler ($9). Even though Talladega Nights earned $163 million, Ferrell‘s $20 million paycheck limited the film’s returns. Adam Sandler faced the same problem. Click earned $236 million, but he was paid the same $20 million for weaker performing movies like The Longest Yard and Anger Management.

When will Hollywood start tightening its belt on bloated star salaries and unworthy production budgets? Judd Apatow, the force behind mega earners Knocked Up and Superbad, has shown that you can make a successful film on a $30 million budget with no-name stars. His next film, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, a parody of music biopic genre, stars John C. Reilly, a character actor who played second fiddle to Ferrell in Talladega Nights. (Translation: He earns a fraction of Ferrell's paycheck.) Apatow's last three films grossed a combined $549 million, proving that even in Hollywood, less is more.